US ‘provoked Kremlin’ over downed drone
THE downing of a US drone was a “provocation”, proving America is directly involved in the Ukraine war, Russia said yesterday.
Tuesday’s incident in international airspace over the Black Sea, which borders Russian and Ukraine, is the first direct military clash between the superpowers since Ukraine war started last February.
The US said the drone’s propeller was clipped by one of two Russian Su-27 fighter jets. But the Kremlin denied there was any contact, saying the Reaper drone went down over its own “sharp manoeuvring”.
Russia has said it will try to recover the wreckage.
Military experts warned of a growing risk of direct US-Moscow confrontation.
Oleksiy Danilov, of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, said: “The incident is Putin’s signal of readiness to expand the conflict zone.”
Russia’s US ambassador, Anatoly Antonov, was summoned and told Moscow committed a “brazen violation of international law”.
He said: “The American UAV deliberately and provocatively was moving towards Russian territory with transponders turned off.”
But Mr Antonov also said: “We do not want any confrontation. We are in favour of building pragmatic relations.”
Aircraft from both countries have operated over the Black Sea since the war.
In a separate development on the same day, RAF Typhoons and German jets intercepted a Russian refuelling plane near Estonian airspace that had failed to communicate with air traffic control.
British and German air forces are conducting planned Nato air policing in the region.