The United States announced on Tuesday that it had summoned the Russian ambassador to the State Department to express its “strong objection” after the downing of a US drone over the Black Sea.
The US said it was “very concerned” about the incident.
“We are engaging directly with the Russians, again at senior levels, to convey our strong objections to this unsafe, unprofessional intercept, which caused the downing of the unmanned U.S. aircraft,” US Diplomatic Spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
He announced that Washington had “summoned” the Russian ambassador to the State Department in the afternoon and that, for his part, the US ambassador in Moscow had conveyed Washington’s protests in a message to the Russian foreign ministry.
The US spokesman said the incident was a “clear violation of international law.”
A Russian Su-27 fighter jet “intercepted and rammed” a US Reaper drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday and caused it to fall, an act described as “reckless” by the White House amid fears of escalation in the war in Ukraine.
For its part, the Russian military acknowledged that two of its fighter jets had intercepted a US drone in the Black Sea on Tuesday, but assured that they had neither hit it nor caused it to fall, contrary to Washington’s claim.
“As a result of a sudden manoeuvre (…) the MQ-9 drone began an uncontrolled flight with a loss of altitude and hit the water surface,” the Russian defence ministry said, adding that the two fighters had not fired and had not had “contact” with the drone.
