LAST UPDATE | 15 Mar 2023
RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTER Sergei Shoigu has spoken to his US counterpart Lloyd Austin amid tensions over the crash of an American drone over the Black Sea.
“At the initiative of the American side, telephone talks were held between Russian Defence Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin,” the Russian defence ministry said without providing further details.
Speaking shortly after the call, Austin vowed that US aircraft will fly “wherever international law allows” and warned Russia to operate with caution.
“The United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows, and it is incumbent upon Russia to operate its military aircraft in a safe and professional manner,” he told reporters.
Russia said this evening that it would react “proportionately” to any future US “provocations” and that Washington’s “increased” intelligence gathering against Russia had led to a drone incident.
“Flights of American strategic unmanned aerial vehicles off the coast of Crimea are provocative in nature, which creates pre-conditions for an escalation of the situation in the Black Sea zone,” the Shoigu said.
“Russia is not interested in such a development of events, but it will continue to respond proportionately to all provocations.”
US Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley said the Pentagon is still analyzing video and data from the drone to see exactly what happened.
“Was it intentional or not? – don’t know yet,” he said.
“We know that the intercept was intentional. We know that the aggressive behavior was intentional, we also know it was very unprofessional and very unsafe,” Milley said.
“The actual contact of the fixed-wing Russian fighter with our UAV, the physical contact with those two, not sure yet.”
Austin expressed appreciation for the call, after more than a year of the Ukraine war during which direct contact between top US and Russian defence officials has been exceedingly rare.
“We take any potential for escalation very seriously and that’s why I believe it’s important to keep the lines of communication open,” he said.
“I think it’s really key that we’re able to pick up the phone and engage each other. And I think that will help to prevent miscalculation going forward.”
Earlier today, Moscow said that it would try to retrieve the wreckage of the drone, in a confrontation that Washington blamed on two Russian fighter jets.
Russia also warned against “hostile” US flights as tensions simmered and Russia denied its Su-27 military aircraft had clipped the propeller of the unmanned Reaper drone.
Ukraine meanwhile countered that the incident over international waters was evidence the Kremlin wants to draw the United States into the conflict.
“I don’t know whether we’ll be able to retrieve it or not but it has to be done. And we will certainly work on it,” Russian Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev said in televised remarks.
The crash yesterday, which the US said was the fault of reckless and unprofessional Russian conduct, further ratcheted up tensions between Moscow and Western allies, already soaring over the Ukraine conflict.
Patrushev said the incident was further proof that the United States is a direct party to fighting in Ukraine and said Russia had a responsibility to “defend our independence and our sovereignty”.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had scrambled jets after detecting a US drone over the Black Sea and denied causing the crash.
The Pentagon said the drone was on a routine mission when it was intercepted “in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner”.
Two #Russian Su-27 aircraft conducted an unsafe & unprofessional intercept with a @usairforce
— U.S. European Command (@US_EUCOM) March 14, 2023
intelligence, surveillance, & reconnaissance unmanned MQ-9 aircraft operating w/in international airspace over the #BlackSea today. https://t.co/nLuJy2Awbe@DeptofDefense @NATO pic.twitter.com/f0njn4gzSj
Russia said the aircraft had lost control but White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the US “obviously” refuted the denial.
He added the United States was trying to prevent the fallen drone from getting into the wrong hands.
“We’ve taken steps to protect our equities with respect to that particular drone – that particular aircraft,” Kirby told CNN.
Russian intercepts over the Black Sea are common, Kirby said, but this one was particularly “unsafe and unprofessional” and “reckless”.
Ukraine said the incident was “provoked by Russia” and cautioned that it signalled President Vladimir Putin’s aim to “expand the conflict”.
“The purpose of this all-in tactic is to always be raising the stakes,” Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council secretary Oleksiy Danilov said on social media.
NATO diplomats in Brussels confirmed the incident, but said they did not expect it to immediately escalate into a further confrontation.
A Western military source, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said diplomatic channels between Russia and the United States could help limit any fallout.
“To my mind, diplomatic channels will mitigate this,” the source said.
Russia’s campaign in Ukraine has led to heightened fears of a direct confrontation between Moscow and the NATO alliance, which has been arming Ukraine to help it defend itself.
Reports of a missile strike in eastern Poland in November briefly caused alarm before Western military sources concluded it was a Ukrainian air defence missile, not a Russian one.
The United States uses MQ-9 Reapers for both surveillance and strikes and has long operated over the Black Sea keeping an eye on Russian naval forces.
“Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9,” said US Air Force General James Hecker, commander of US Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa.
“In fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash.
“US and allied aircraft will continue to operate in international airspace and we call on the Russians to conduct themselves professionally and safely,” he added.
Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said the drone was “unflyable and uncontrollable so we brought it down”, adding that the collision also likely damaged the Russian aircraft, which he said was able to land following the incident.
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