An American Reaper drone, the identical mannequin because the one shot down within the Black Sea.Getty
The Russian ambassador in Washington, Anatoli Antonov, has described the maneuvers of a US drone over the waters of the Black Sea as “provocation” after hitting an SU-27 fighter of the Russian Air Force in opposition to the unmanned automobile. “I feel it is a actual provocation,” he stated after being summoned to a gathering with the US State Department, based on the TASS information company.
Antonov, nonetheless, has reiterated that the plane was flying with the transponders turned off, after the assembly with the State Department that he has described as “constructive” and by which no potential penalties have been mentioned. According to the ambassador, Moscow doesn’t search confrontation with the United States. It is the primary direct incident between Russia and the United States because the begin of the warfare in Ukraine greater than a 12 months in the past.
According to the command of the US forces, one of many Russian fighters flying over the Black Sea hit one of many drone’s propellers, which led the US authorities to shoot it down at sea. According to the Pentagon, Russian planes flew close to the machine for greater than half-hour earlier than it fell into the waters of the Black Sea, with out its stays having the ability to be recovered.
The US has acknowledged having misplaced the drone, mannequin MQ-9 Reaper, after falling into worldwide waters. Washington has been working surveillance Reaper drones for months over the strategic Black Sea, the one outlet to the Mediterranean for Russia, in addition to Ukraine’s grain-laden ships.
For their half, the Moscow authorities have acknowledged that the Russian navy at no time used weapons or got here into contact with the US drone, which was flying with the transponders turned off and violating the delimited space “in accordance with worldwide requirements ” to hold out overflights in worldwide airspace.