The US European command has charged the pilots of two Russian fighter jets with “reckless” behavior in international airspace after one of them crashed in the unmanned MQ-9 aircraft known as the Reaper. After the incident, the North Americans reported the total loss of the device, the unit price of which was 32 million euros in 2020, according to the predetermined.
The incident occurred shortly after 6 a.m. in Lisbon over the waters of the Black Sea, when two Russian Su-27 fighter jets approached the Reaper in a “reckless, environmentally unfriendly and unprofessional manner”. First, according to the Americans, they “threw fuel and flew in front of the MQ-9”, then one of them hit the propeller, which led to the crash in international waters.
“In fact, this unsafe and unprofessional action on the part of the Russians almost caused both planes to crash,” US Air Force Commander James B. Hecker said in a statement. The Americans point to the “pattern of dangerous actions” of Russian pilots when interacting with aircraft from allied countries, and not only in the Black Sea. “These aggressive actions by Russian aircrew are dangerous and can lead to miscalculations and unintentional escalation.”
Later, the White House National Security Council spokesman said these types of aerial encounters are “not uncommon,” just the result of this one. “If the message is that they want to discourage us from flying and operating in international airspace, over the Black Sea, then that message will fail, because that’s not going to happen,” said John Kirby.
State Department spokesman Ned Price called the incident a “brutal violation of international law” and said the Russian ambassador to Washington had been summoned and that the ambassador to Moscow, Lynne Tracy, sent “a strong message” to the Russian government issued.
Moscow, for its part, which said it discovered the Reaper near the Crimean peninsula, has denied any responsibility for what happened. “The Russian army did not use weapons against the US drone and did not make contact,” the Russian defense ministry said in a statement. In the same document, the Russian version explains that the crash in the Black Sea was the result of “sudden maneuvers”, with the aircraft “going out of control and losing altitude”.
Bakhmut’s “Fundamental Importance”
On the front lines of the war, Russian mercenaries occupied the industrial area of Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, after taking a photo at the same place the Ukrainian president visited in December. Volodymyr Zelensky met with the military leaders after deciding to continue the defense of that city, despite the fact that the occupying forces controlled three of the four flanks and after being advised by the United States to withdraw in January .
Contrary to the Pentagon’s assessment, Commander Valeriy Zaluzhny considers it “of fundamental strategic importance for the deterrence of the enemy” and for the “stability of the defense of the entire front”.
On the eve of another donor meeting in Ramstein, Kiev received indication that it will receive Soviet MiG-29 aircraft from Poland in the next four to six weeks, while videos of Ukrainian soldiers receiving training on the French armored AMX-10RC, but also the US M1 Abrams tank and the M2A3 Bradley infantry vehicle.
Source: DN
