Washington/ Moscow — The US has warned Russia against an escalation after the US military said it was forced to crash an unmanned surveillance drone into the Black Sea after a Russian fighter jet intercepted it over international waters and damaged the propeller.
The US European Command said the incident, which occurred at 0603 GMT Tuesday, was the result of "an unsafe and unprofessional intercept" on the part of the Russian aircraft.
The US State Department summoned Russian ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov to protest the encounter that took place in waters near Ukraine, which according to the US military involved two Russian aircraft and a US drone.
Russia's Defence Ministry rejected the US military's version of events. The ministry said the drone crashed in the Black Sea near the Crimean Peninsula as the result of an abrupt manoeuvrer and that it was never hit by a Russian aircraft.
It said Russian jets had been sent to identify an unknown intruder over the Black Sea that threatened to cross into Russian territory.
"The Russian aircraft did not use on-board weapons, did not come
into contact with the unmanned aerial vehicle, and returned
safely to their home airfield," the ministry statement said.
US National Security Council communications director John Kirby later rejected Russia's version of events, telling broadcaster CNN the US government was considering publishing images of the collision between the drone and the Russian aircraft.
Kirby said that such "inappropriate, unsafe, unprofessionnal conduct by the Russian pilots" could lead to "miscalculations between [...] two militaries that are operating not obviously in Ukraine together, but certainly in proximity in the region."
"And we don't want to see this war escalate beyond what it already has done to the Ukrainian people," he warned.
Russia's ambassador to the US meanwhile accused Washington of using its drones to collect surveillance data for Ukraine.
"What are they doing thousands of miles away from the United States? The answer is obvious - they are collecting intelligence information which is later used by the Kiev regime to attack our forces and our territory," the ambassador said in a statement quoted by Russian state news agency TASS on Wednesday.
Antonov went on to say that the "unacceptable actions of the US military in close proximity to our borders" were a cause for concern. "We are well aware of the tasks for which such reconnaissance and combat drones are used," he said.
According to the US military, two Russian Su-27 aircraft intercepted the MQ-9 drone as it conducted "routine operations."
The Su-27s "dumped fuel on and flew in front of" the US aerial vehicle before one of the Russian planes hit the propeller, the US European Command said, adding that the decision was then taken to intentionally crash the drone in the Black Sea.
Later, Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said the drone was no longer manoeuvrable, so US forces had to take it out of the sky and let it fall into the sea. He did not initially comment on the question of whether the aircraft could be recovered.
Ryder said the Russian jet also likely suffered damage.
The two Russian jets had stayed in the vicinity of the US drone for around 30 to 40 minutes before the collision occurred, he said.
The large MQ-9 drone is controlled remotely and primarily used for reconnaissance, but can also perform precision strikes. It can stay in the air for long periods of time and has sensors that cover a wide area.
The Pentagon declined to provide more specifics as to what the drone's mission was on Tuesday and whether or not it was armed.
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