Russian warplane hits American drone over Black Sea

KYIV (AP):

A Russian fighter jet struck the propeller of a US surveillance drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday in a “brazen violation of international law”, causing American forces to bring down the unmanned aerial vehicle, the US said.

Moscow said the US drone manoeuvred sharply and crashed into water following an encounter with Russian fighter jets scrambled to intercept it near Crimea, but insisted its warplanes didn’t fire their weapons or hit the drone.

The incident, which added to Russia-US tensions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, appeared to mark the first time since the height of the Cold War that a US aircraft was brought down after an encounter with a Russian warplane.

US President Joe Biden was briefed on the incident by national security adviser Jake Sullivan, according to White House National Security spokesman John Kirby. He added that US State Department officials would be speaking directly with their Russian counterparts and “expressing our concerns over this unsafe and unprofessional intercept”.

State Department spokesman Ned Price called it a “brazen violation of international law”. He said the US summoned the Russian ambassador to lodge a protest and the US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, has made similar representations in Moscow.

The US European Command said in a statement that two Russian Su-27 fighter jets “conducted an unsafe and unprofessional intercept” of a US MQ-9 drone that was operating within international airspace over the Black Sea.

It said one of the Russian fighters “struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing US forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters”. Prior to that, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 several times before the collision in “a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner”, the US European Command said in a statement from Stuttgart, Germany.

“This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional,” it added.

US Air Force Gen James B. Hecker, commander of US Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa, said the 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”. He added that “in fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash”.

Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig Gen Pat Ryder said the incident occurred at 7:03 a.m. Central European time (0603 GMT; 2:03 a.m. EST) over international waters, and well clear of Ukraine, after the Russian jets had flown in the vicinity of the drone for 30 to 40 minutes. There did not appear to be any communications between the aircraft before the collision, Ryder added.

The MQ-9 is capable of carrying munitions but Ryder would not say whether it was armed. The US had not recovered the crashed drone, US Air Forces-Europe said in a statement, and neither had Russia, Ryder said.

He said it appeared the Russian aircraft also was damaged in the collision but the US has confirmed that warplane did land, although Ryder would not say where.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the US drone was flying over the Black Sea near Crimea and intruded in the area that was declared off limits by Russia as part of what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, causing the military to scramble fighters to intercept it.

“As a result of sharp manoeuvre, the MQ-9 drone went into uncontrollable flight with a loss of altitude and crashed into water,” it said. “The Russian fighters didn’t use their weapons or impact the unmanned aerial vehicle, and they safely returned to their base.”

Moscow has repeatedly voiced concern about US intelligence flights close to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The Kremlin has charged that by providing weapons to Ukraine and sharing intelligence information with Kyiv, the US and its allies have effectively become engaged in the conflict.