Ukraine accused this Wednesday Russia of wanting to “expand” the conflict to other parts, after the incident in the Black Sea between Russian fighters and an American drone.
“The incident with the American drone MQ-9 Reapers provoked by Russia in the Black Sea is a sign from (Vladimir) Putin that he is willing to expand the conflict zone and involve other parties,” Ukrainian Security Council secretary said on Twitter. Oleksii Danilov.
The United States Air Force in Europe reported that two Russian fighters su-27 they intercepted a drone MQ-9 Reapers in international waters on Tuesday and that the maneuvers of one of the planes led to an accident and the “loss” of the US device.
The United States blamed Russia for the incident and described the action of the Russian planes as “reckless” and “unprofessional”, but Russia denies any wrongdoing.
The Pentagon claimed that the drone was carrying out a routine mission when it was intercepted “in a reckless manner” and Russia, for its part, defends that the drone was out of control.
Moscow denied these accusations, although it acknowledged that two of its fighters intercepted an American drone detected “in the area of the crimean peninsula”, Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014. According to Moscow, that drone was advancing “in the direction” from the Russian border.
“The Russian fighters did not use their weapons”, and they did not even come into contact with the drone, which had violated the provisional zone of use of the airspace “established to carry out the special military operation”, the Russian army defended itself, using the usual term to refer to the invasion of Ukraine.
The State Department summoned the Russian ambassador in protest.
White House Homeland Security spokesman John Kirbyresponded to Russia, criticizing its refusal to take responsibility for the accident.
The senior official added that the United States is trying to recover the remains of the drone.
“Obviously we don’t want to see anybody getting their hands on it other than us,” he said. “We have taken steps to protect our interests,” he added.
Several diplomats from the NATO They confirmed the incident, but noted that they do not expect an escalation of the confrontation.
The offensive of Russia in Ukraine Fears of a direct confrontation between Moscow and the NATOwhose countries have supplied weapons to kyiv.
(With information from AFP)
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Source-www.infobae.com