Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Shoigu, on Wednesday over the downing of the US MQ-9 Reaper drone in the Black Sea.
It marked the first time since October that the two military leaders spoke, as high-level engagement between the US and Russia has been rare since the invasion of Ukraine was launched in February 2022.
“I just got off the phone with my Russian counterpart, Minister Shoigu,” Austin told reporters at a press conference alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the call and said it was held at the request of the US. The ministry said on Telegram that Austin and Shoigu exchanged “views on the causes and consequences of the incident with the crash of a US unmanned aerial vehicle on March 14 in the Black Sea.”
The US says a Russian fighter jet collided with the drone’s propeller, causing it to crash. The Russian side insists the aircraft did not collide and says the drone crashed after making a sharp maneuver.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that Shoigu told Austin that “the cause of the incident was the actions of the United States on non-compliance with the restricted flight zone declared by the Russian Federation.”
At the press conference, Austin and Milley blamed the incident on Russia’s “aggressive” behavior in the Black Sea. “We know that the intercept was intentional. We know that the aggressive behavior was intentional,” Milley said. He also told reporters that the US wasn’t sure if the Russian plane intended to collide with the drone.
Russian officials said the drone entered airspace that Russia declared off limits due to its military operations and accused the US of sending the MQ-9 as an intentional provocation. Austin insisted the drone was on a “routine” surveillance flight in international airspace and vowed such flights will continue.
“As I’ve said repeatedly, it’s important that great powers be models of transparency and communication, and the United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows,” he said.
This is called Russian-imposed no-fly zone. Comply or die.
Nah, the Russians are probably reasonably safe there.
Of course. Russians are perfectly safe in the Gulf of Mexico.
Russians are perfectly safe in pretty much any place that the US regime chooses to let them be perfectly safe.
And vice versa.
It was interesting as to where the encounter took place. Black Sea. Crimea near by. Scouting mission?
If the Russians have declare it a no fly zone and we don’t want to start a war with Russia (at least that’s what they lie..), then why are we flying our drones into it and don’t expect it to be brought down?
I can only hope that we don’t start a war over a stupid drone that someone insisted on flying to a war zone…
Oh, but no-fly zones don’t apply to America World Police! /sarc
No one will start a war over it and the US claim is that it was in/over international waters i.e. not in any no fly zone – it’ll be interesting to see where the Russians will try to salvage the drone from if they go ahead with that project.
haha, good one. Sending large Russian ships to the crash site to recover debris will tell the world the West was right about their claim that the Drone was flying over international waters.
The Kremlin may have to re-think this move. Lol
Was this an attempt at diplomacy? Somebody needs to remind Austin that we don’t do diplomacy.
No, it wasn’t. It was him asserting our democratic, rules based, self, by whining about the downing of the drone. Like, so what if the drones were in your sphere of influence, and off the shores of Crimea.
In other news,Poland is sending Kiev 4 Russian Mig-29s. Poland is breaking with NATO on this.
There are some websites which publish articles every day which suggest that the Russian armed forces are about to collapse tomorrow. That is obviously “wishful thinking journalism”. Because of that mode of thinking, they never ask the question “why are the Russians still in Mariupol?”, a variant of Clemenceau’s “why are the Germans still in Soissons?” during WW1.
Hey,Lloyd, what the f*ck was the drone doing in waters close to Crimea? You lying sack of sh*t!
Lloyd J Austin the Terd is an empty suit well out of his element!
Russia should declare a No Fly Zone over all of the Black Sea and eliminate all aircraft that transgress this zone.
“Russia should declare a No Fly Zone over all of the Black Sea and eliminate all aircraft that transgress this zone.”
The reason it won’t do the first part is that it can’t do the second part.