US slams Russia over risky game of drones
WASHINGTON: Russia’s ambassador to Washington has been summoned over the “reckless” downing of a US drone into the Black Sea after a Russian fighter jet collided with the unmanned surveillance craft.
US European Command said two Russian Su-27 fighters intercepted the MQ-9 Reaper drone over international waters, dumped fuel on it and one clipped its propeller.
“Several times before the collision, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” it said.
Moscow denied causing the drone to crash, which the Pentagon said was on a routine intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission. “As a result of a sharp manoeuvre … the MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle entered an uncontrolled flight with loss of altitude and collided with the surface of the water,” the Russian Defence Ministry said, adding that the two Russian jets had no contact with the US aircraft and did not use their weapons.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby later said: “Obviously, we refute the Russians’ denial.”
He added that the US was trying to prevent the $32m drone from getting into the wrong hands. “We obviously don’t want to see anybody getting their hands on it beyond us,” Mr Kirby said.
Russian intercepts over the Black Sea were common, he said, but this one was “noteworthy because of how unsafe and unprofessional it was, indeed how reckless it was”.
Russian ambassador Anatoly Antonov was told at a meeting with senior US officials at the State Department that Russia committed a “brazen violation of international law” in damaging the drone in international airspace, forcing it to ditch in the sea.
Pentagon sources believe the incident was unlikely to be the result of a deliberate collision, which could easily have proven disastrous for the Russian jets. As if to emphasise there was no contact, the Kremlin said the two planes returned safely to their base.
The Pentagon said it would continue its aerial operations near the Ukraine warzone.
“If the message they want to send, and I’m not suggesting it is, is that they want to deter or dissuade us from flying and operating in international airspace over the Black Sea, then that message will fail. Because that’s not going to happen,” Mr Kirby said.
“We’re going to continue to fly and operate in international airspace over international waters. And we’re going to continue to do what we need to do for our own national security interest in that part of the world.”
The Reaper drones which fly from European bases, are plane-sized, high-altitude surveillance aircraft.