U.S. plane will proceed to fly “wherever international law allows,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin instructed his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday, as the 2 ministers mentioned Tuesday’s incident over the Black Sea, the place Moscow’s jets triggered an American drone to crash.
Washington says a Russian Su-27 clipped an MQ-9, requiring the drone to be introduced down within the Black Sea, whereas Moscow denies duty and accuses the U.S. of conducting “hostile” flights within the area.
Austin spoke with Shoigu “regarding recent unprofessional, dangerous, and reckless behavior by the Russian air force in international airspace over the Black Sea,” the Pentagon stated in an announcement.
He “emphasized that the United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows,” it added.
Russia confirmed the decision and stated Washington had initiated it.
The U.S. protection chief additionally instructed a news convention that it’s “incumbent upon Russia to operate its military aircraft in a safe and professional manner.”
Austin stated sustaining communication with Russia is vital, after greater than a yr of the Ukraine warfare throughout which direct contact between high U.S. and Russian protection officers has been uncommon.
“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 stated.
“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.”
Wreckage ‘not of worth’
General Mark Milley, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated alongside Austin that he deliberate to name his Russian counterpart as effectively.
The Pentagon remains to be analyzing video and knowledge from the drone to see precisely what occurred.
“Was it intentional or not? Don’t know yet,” Milley stated. “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.”
But as to the “actual contact of the fixed-wing Russian fighter with our UAV, the physical contact with those two, not sure yet,” he stated, utilizing an abbreviation for the unmanned aerial automobile.
Moscow stated Wednesday that it might attempt to retrieve the wreckage. Milley didn’t explicitly rule out a U.S. restoration effort, however stated doing so can be troublesome.
“We don’t have any naval surface vessels in the Black Sea at this time,” and the drone possible broke up and sank in an space the place the water is 4,000-5,000 ft (1,200-1,500 meters) deep, he stated.
Even if Russia was in a position to get better the wreckage, the United States took “mitigating measures” to guard delicate info.
“We are quite confident that whatever was of value is no longer of value,” Milley stated.
The United States makes use of MQ-9s for each surveillance and strikes and has lengthy operated over the Black Sea, keeping track of Russian naval forces.
Several of the drones have been misplaced in recent times, together with one which the U.S. Central Command stated was shot down over Yemen with a surface-to-air missile in 2019.
‘US flights provocative’
For his half, Russian Defense Minister Shoigu instructed Austin that the flight of U.S. drones off the coast of Crimea are “provocative in nature” and creates “preconditions for the escalation of the situation in the Black Sea area.”
“The main focus was an exchange of views on the causes and consequences of the March 14 incident involving a U.S. UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) crash in the Black Sea,” stated an announcement by the Russian Defense Ministry issued following a cellphone name between Shoygu and Austin.
Shoigu stated the drone crash was attributable to the U.S. actions of “non-compliance with the flight restriction zone declared by the Russian Federation” established in reference to Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“The Russian Federation is not interested in such development, but it will continue to respond to all provocations in a proportionate manner,” the assertion additional stated, including that each international locations should act “as responsibly as possible, including maintaining military channels of communication to discuss any crisis situations.”
Two Russian SU-27 fighter jets “conducted an unsafe and unprofessional intercept” of a US MQ-9 Reaper on Tuesday, together with dumping gasoline on the drone and flying in entrance of it “in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” in line with the U.S.’ European Command.
Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the U.S., stated earlier on Wednesday that the drone tried to collect reconnaissance info to convey it to Ukraine for strikes towards Russia.
Separately, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed that the U.S. is attempting to search for “provocations” to escalate its “confrontational approaches.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com
