Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu regarding the Russian fighter pilot who collided with a U.S. drone.
Two Russian Su-27 aircraft dumped fuel on a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 unmanned aircraft several times on Tuesday morning before one of them flew into its propeller over the Black Sea. The U.S. military was forced to crash land it into the water, and it’s unclear if it’ll be able to recover the drone.
RUSSIAN AIRCRAFT COLLIDES WITH UNMANNED US DRONE OVER THE BLACK SEA
Austin, in a press conference on Wednesday, said: “I just got off the phone with my Russian counterpart, Minister Shoigu. As I’ve said repeatedly, it’s important that great powers be models of transparency and communication.”
“The United States will fly and operate wherever international law allows,” he said. “Now we take any potential for escalation very seriously, and that’s why I believe it’s important to keep the lines of communication open. I think it’s really key that we’re able to pick up the phone and engage each other, and I think that that will help to prevent miscalculation going forward.”
Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the intercept was intentional, as was the reckless behavior, but said it’s unclear whether the pilot intended to connect with the U.S. drone. He also said he has a call scheduled with his Russian counterpart, Chief of General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov.
He also said it’ll take days for them to figure out whether the military will be able to recover it because the debris “probably sank to some significant depths.”
Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said Russia will try to get the wreckage of the drone.
“I don’t know if we will be able to get it or not, but we need to do it … and we will definitely look into it,” Patrushev said on Russian state TV Rossiya 1, according to CNN. “As for the drone, the Americans keep saying that they are not participating in hostilities. This is yet another confirmation that they are directly involved in these events, in the war.”
Even if it is able to get to it, the military took steps to limit its intelligence value.
“It probably broke up, probably not a lot to recover, frankly,” Milley said. “As far as the loss of anything of sensitive intelligence, etc., as normal we would take, and we did take, mitigating measures. So we are quite confident that whatever was of value is no longer of value.”
Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, Pentagon spokesman, said they spoke “regarding recent unprofessional, dangerous, and reckless behavior by the Russian air force in international airspace over the Black Sea,” adding, “Secretary Austin emphasized that the United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows.”
This type of behavior from Russian pilots is becoming more common, though this is the first time a Russian pilot has crashed into a U.S. drone.
“This hazardous episode is part of a pattern of aggressive, risky, risky and unsafe actions by Russian pilots in international airspace,” America’s defense secretary said.
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State Department spokesman Ned Price described the incident as “a brazen violation of international law,” though he said the U.S. couldn’t “characterize” Russia’s motivations, adding: “In a sense, however, the motivations matter much less than what actually transpired, and that’s what we’re speaking to today.”
The U.S. summoned Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov, though he rebuked the allegation, while U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy conveyed a similar “strong message” to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Price said.
