On Wednesday the Russian defence minister informed the head of the Pentagon that an incident involving a drone had been caused by Washington’s “enhanced” intelligence gathering against Russia.
On Tuesday, the US charged that a collision with a Russian Su-27 warplane forced one of the US’s Reaper surveillance drones into the water over the Black Sea, where it was forced down.
Russia denies that it brought the drone down on purpose.
When President Vladimir Putin dispatched soldiers to Ukraine in February 2022, it had been a while since Moscow and Washington had seen a similar situation.
The US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was informed on Wednesday by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu that “increasing intelligence actions against the interests of the Russian Federation” and “non-compliance with the restricted flight zone” The incident was caused by a declaration made by Moscow owing to its campaign in Ukraine, according to a statement from the defence ministry.
Also, the Moscow ministry issued a warning that it will respond “proportionately” to any upcoming “provocations” from the US.
The ministry claimed that American strategic UAV flights off the coast of Crimea were provocative in nature and set the stage for an escalation of the situation in the Black Sea region.
“Such a course of events is not of interest to Russia, but it will continue to retaliate proportionately to any provocations.”
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, and Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian military’s general staff, spoke separately, according to a separate statement from the defence ministry.
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