According to Ukraine’s foreign minister, incidents like the downing of an American drone over the Black Sea will continue until Russia vacates Crimea.
Yesterday, a $32 million American “Reaper” drone collided with a Russian fighter jet, sending the unmanned surveillance plane plunging into the Black Sea.
The action, which marked the first time an American aircraft had been shot down by a Russian fighter since the Cold War’s height, raised concerns that tensions between the two countries may worsen.
Yet despite the ‘deplorable state’ of relations between the two nations, a Kremlin spokesperson today announced that Russia would not rule out ‘constructive dialogue’ with the US.
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Asked if the incident could inflame tensions with Washington, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated the Russian Defense Ministry’s statement that Russian jets didn’t use their weapons or impact the U.S. drone.
Peskov described U.S.-Russia relations as being at their lowest point, but added that ‘Russia has never rejected constructive dialogue, and it’s not rejecting it now.’
U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the drone was flying in international airspace and over international waters when the encounter with the Russian fighter took place Tuesday.
He stressed that the drone’s presence over the Black Sea was not an uncommon occurrence.
‘It is also not uncommon for the Russians to try to intercept them,’ Kirby said, adding that such an encounter ‘does increase the risk of miscalculations, misunderstandings.’
Speaking to the BBC, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he did not expect to see any serious diplomatic escalation.
Describing it as a ‘routine incident’, Mr Kuleba said: ‘As long as Russia controls Crimea, these kinds of incidents will be inevitable and the Black Sea will not be a safe place.
‘So the only way to prevent such incidents is actually to kick Russia out of Crimea.’
While encounters between Russian and Nato aircraft are not unusual- before the invasion of Ukraine, Nato planes were involved in an annual average of 400 intercepts with their Russian counterparts- the war has heightened the significance and potential hazards of such incidents.
US military officials said the encounter happened on Tuesday morning and lasted for around 30-40 minutes.
Several times before the collision, Russian jets dumped fuel on the drone in a ‘reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner’, before flying underneath the craft and clipping its propeller, causing it to become ‘unflyable.’
The MQ-9 Reaper drone has not yet been recovered from the Black Sea and it is unclear whether it will be.
The secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, tweeted on Wednesday that the drone incident was ‘a signal from Putin that he is ready to expand the conflict zone, with drawing other parties in.’
At the Pentagon, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the intercept by the Russian jet was part of a ‘pattern of aggressive, risky and unsafe actions by Russian pilots in international airspace.’
He said Russia must operate its aircraft in a safe manner.
‘Make no mistake, the United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows, he added.’
After being summoned to speak to officials in Washington, Russian ambassador Anatoly Antonov said Moscow saw the drone incident as ‘a provocation’.
Mr Antonov added that from the Kremlin’s point of view, ‘the unacceptable activity of the US military in the close proximity to our borders is a cause for concern.’
When asked by the BBC if the US and its allies might become more cautious following the incident, Mr Kuleba said: ‘The mood is not to escalate but nor is the mood to lean under the pressure – the physical or rhetorical pressure – of Russia.’
‘If the West wants to demonstrate its weakness, it should certainly demonstrate its cautiousness after an incident like this, but I don’t have a feeling that this is the mood in capitals,’ he replied.