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Russian warplanes were “reckless” and “unprofessional” when they collided into a U.S. Military MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea, the Pentagon says.
But according to a former advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, “reckless is maybe too strong a word” and “Americans should be more careful.”
“I wouldn’t say it was unprofessional,” Sergei Markov, a political scientist and Kremlin ally, told the BBC. “The problem is that this drone from United States took part in the war on Ukrainian territory because it’s getting information about Russian troops and was giving this information to Ukrainian troops to kill Russian soldiers.”
The BBC’s Razia Iqbal responded there was no evidence of the drone helping Ukraine troops and that it was legal to hover over the Black Sea since the territory is international airspace and “belongs to no one.”
Markov argued otherwise, echoing Moscow’s statement on the matter that the U.S. drone violated what Putin has declared a “temporary airspace regime” and that the two Russian Su-27 fighter jets didn’t make any contact with the U.S. drone, which was “unguided” before simply crashing into the water.
However, the U.S. Department of Defense claimed that several times before the collision, the Su-27s dumped fuel onto the MQ-9 drone and proceeded to clip it.
The incident underscored escalating tensions ever since Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine.
Russian ambassador Anatoly Antonov was summoned to speak to Washington officials, where he explained the Kremlin considered this “unacceptable activity” of the U.S. military.
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Photo: MQ-9 Reaper drone courtesy of Shutterstock
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Image and article originally from www.benzinga.com. Read the original article here.