Reaper that crashed near Crimea should be recovered and investigated, says top Russian security official
Moscow will attempt to recover the wreckage of the US MQ-9 Reaper drone that fell into the Black Sea on Tuesday, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev announced.
Speaking live on a Russian Federal Channel on Wednesday, the official admitted he was unsure if it would be possible to access the remains of the drone but stressed that it was important to make an effort to find and study the pavement.
Patrushev also added that “Americans keep saying they are not taking part in hostilities” in Ukraine and that this latest incident with the drone is “Yet another confirmation that [the US] are directly concerned” in the ongoing military conflict.
The Secretary’s statement comes after the European Command in Washington (EUCOM) announced that one of its MQ-9 Reaper drones was shot down over the Black Sea on Tuesday morning following “dangerous and unprofessional” actions of two Russian Su-27 fighter jets. The Pentagon insists that one of the Russian interceptors had “hit the propeller” of the drone while carrying out a reconnaissance mission in international airspace.
The Russian Defense Ministry denied claims that its planes came into contact with the US drone, but said Aerospace Forces recorded the flight of a US drone over the Black Sea towards the Russian border. and had sent two interceptors to investigate. The ministry noted that the aircraft was flying with the transponders turned off and in violation of the temporary air borders established around the area of ongoing military operations in Ukraine.
At one point “following sudden maneuvers” the drone entered uncontrolled flight and crashed into the sea, the ministry reported, noting that the Russian fighters did not use any airborne weapons and did not come into contact with the drone.
The United States National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications, John Kirby, has since said that the United States is taking all necessary measures to ensure that the remains of the MQ-9 Reaper drone do not fall between the someone else’s hands.
“It is the property of the United States. We obviously don’t want to see anyone other than us get their hands on it. Kirby told CNN. However, he also admitted that he is not sure that the United States will be able to recover the plane, because it fell in “Very very deep waters” in the Black Sea. “We are still evaluating if there can be any recovery effort. There may not be.
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