The US military claimed that a Russian fighter jet on Tuesday collided with an American drone over the Black Sea. They further informed that the collision caused US forces to bring the unmanned aerial vehicle down in international waters. US military termed the incident unsafe and unprofessional intercept.
Russian jets conducted an unsafe and unprofessional intercept
The U.S. European Command said in a statement that two Russian Su-27 fighter jets “conducted an unsafe and unprofessional intercept” of a U.S. MQ-9 drone that was operating within international airspace over the Black Sea. White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said U.S. President Joe Biden was briefed on the incident by national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
It said one of the Russian fighters “struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing U.S. forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters,” adding that several times before the collision, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in “a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner.”
Incident comes amid soaring Russian-U.S. tensions
“This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional,” it added. The incident comes amid soaring Russian-U.S. tensions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine. There was no immediate reaction from Moscow, which has repeatedly voiced concern about US intelligence flights close to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Amid the continuing fighting in Ukraine, A Russian missile struck an apartment building in the center of Kramatorsk on Tuesday, killing at least one person and wounding nine others in one of Ukraine’s major city strongholds in its eastern Donetsk region.
(With inputs from AP)
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