After an American drone was intercepted by Russian fighters over the Black Sea, the Russian ambassador to the United States on Wednesday demanded that Washington put an end to “hostile” flights near his country’s border.
Ambassador Anatoly Antonov wrote on Telegram, “We assume that the United States will refrain from further speculation in the media and stop flights near Russian borders.” We regard as openly hostile any action involving the use of US weapons.
The US military criticized the maneuver as “reckless” after a Russian fighter jet dropped fuel on an American drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday and then collided with it, causing the drone to crash.
The unmanned MQ-9 Reaper was said to have been intercepted by two Russian Su-27 fighters over international waters, and one of the Russian fighters reportedly clipped its propeller.
Tuesday, Russia’s defense ministry said it scrambled fighter jets after spotting a US drone over the Black Sea, but it denied that it caused it to crash.
An American MQ-9 drone flying “towards the Russian state border,” according to Moscow’s defense ministry, was detected “over the waters of the Black Sea in the area of the Crimean peninsula.”