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| After MQ-9 Drone Crashes In Black Sea, Russia Hopes US Stops Flights Near Border |
Moscow - Russian Ambassador to the United States (US) Anatoly Antonov said Moscow expected Washington to stop flights near the Russian border after a US drone crashed in the Black Sea. “We are well aware of the missions used for reconnaissance and drone strikes.
According to the National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby, US UAVs make these sort of cross flights every day. What are they doing thousands of miles away from the United States? The answer is obvious," Antonov told reporters.
He explained, “US drones gather intelligence which is then used by the Kiev regime to attack the Armed Forces and our territories... We proceed from the fact that the United States will refrain from further speculation in the media landscape and stop carrying out sorties near Russia's borders. ." Previously, Antonov was summoned to the US State Department over the US drone crash incident.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said the US MQ-9 drone went down in the Black Sea as a result of a sharp maneuver and the Russian fighter jets sent to intercept it did not make contact with it or use weapons against it. The Russian Ministry of Defense said the air control of the Russian Aerospace Forces recorded a drone flight over the Crimean peninsula towards the Russian border.
"The flight was carried out with the aircraft's transponder turned off, violating the territory of the provisional regime for the use of airspace, which was established for the purpose of carrying out special Russian military operations and communicated to all users and published in accordance with international standards," the Russian Defense Ministry said.
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The Russian Ministry of Defense added that Russian fighter jets were deployed to identify the intruders. The US European Command (EUCOM) issued a release saying the incident involved a Russian Su-27 aircraft, which allegedly hit the drone's propellers during an "unsafe and unprofessional intercept" over the Black Sea. EUCOM added that the incident resulted in the "total loss" of the drone.