The Russian Defense Minister told his US counterpart on Wednesday that the “strengthening” of US espionage operations was one of the causes of the incident between two Russian fighter jets and a US drone in the Black Sea. .
“The causes of the incident are the non-compliance by the United States of the restricted flight zone announced by Russia and established as a result of the conduct of the special military operation [na Ucrânia]as well as the strengthening of intelligence activities against the interests of Russia”, stressed Serguei Shoigu, quoted in a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Shoigu had a conversation with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin today, where he told him that the “US strategic drone flights off Crimea are provocative” and “create the conditions for an escalation in the Black Sea.”
“Russia does not want such a development of events, but it will react proportionally to any provocation,” stressed the Russian Ministry of Defense, considering that “the main nuclear powers must act in the most responsible way possible, in particular by keeping communication channels open . to discuss any crisis situation”.
In a separate statement, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov also spoke by phone with his US counterpart Mark Milley on Wednesday, without elaborating.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had already revealed the phone call with his Russian counterpart about the destruction of an American ‘drone’ in the Black Sea.
This was the first contact between Austin and the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, since last October, and when the invasion of Ukraine by the Moscow Army has already been over a year old.
“As I have already repeated, it is important that the great powers be models of transparency and communication, and the United States will continue to fly and operate in all the regions that international law allows,” Austin said.
On Tuesday, the US military claimed it had deliberately shot down its MQ-9 Reaper drone, which crashed in the Black Sea after a Russian fighter damaged its propeller. Russia has denied causing the incident. The US indicates that it is trying to obtain the surveillance images collected by the ‘drone’ and that reveal how it crashed.
Contact between Russian and US military officials has been very limited since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Austin and Shoigu first spoke about the war in May 2022. At the time, he was the highest-level contact between the two sides after the start of the conflict.
In October, they contacted each other twice in three days, when signs of a threat of military escalation emerged.
Shoigu accused Ukraine of planning to use a “dirty bomb,” a charge rejected by the United States and its Western allies, which cited a false pretext by Moscow to justify further escalation, including the potential use of a tactical nuclear weapon.
The United Nations Organization (UN) today called for dialogue and containment between Russia and the United States, after the incident between two Russian combat planes and an American ‘drone’ in the Black Sea.
Questioned on the subject, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary General, said that António Guterres calls for dialogue and “avoid any escalation.”
Source: TSF
