The Ukrainian Air Force has defended the use of American reconnaissance drones there after the military incident over the Black Sea. "The Black Sea is not an inland sea of Russia, as they have occupied the Sea of Azov and consider it theirs," Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Ihnat said on television in Kiev on Wednesday night. Neighbors of the Black Sea are also NATO members, including Turkey and Romania, which is why the American drones act there on a legal basis. The Black Sea borders both Russia and Ukraine.
Moscow's ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, had criticized after the incident that the crashed US drone was thousands of kilometers away from home near the Russian border in use. It was a "provocation". The drone collects data for the Ukrainian armed forces in order to carry out strikes against Russia. This is an "inadmissible activity," Antonov said.
The United States had invoked international law that allows operations over neutral waters. Instead of the crashed one, a new American drone is already in use, said Ihnat in Kiev. The incident occurred on Tuesday southeast of Ukraine's snake island in the Black Sea. The United States had been monitoring and reconnaissance there long before the large-scale invasion began on February 24 last year.
According to the American military, an unmanned American military drone had collided with a Russian fighter jet in international airspace over the Black Sea. American forces would have had to bring down the drone after the collision.
Russia denies that there was any physical contact. The drone had collided with the water surface after a sharp evasive maneuver. She was neither shot at nor attacked in any other way, according to a statement distributed by the state agency Tass.
The American government, on the other hand, warned Moscow against an escalation. The communications director of the US National Security Council, John Kirby, rejected the account from Moscow. They are considering publishing footage of the drone's encounter with two Russian warplanes to provide reconnaissance. Kirby warned that inappropriate actions by Russian pilots could lead to "miscalculations" between the armed forces of the two countries. Referring to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, he said: "We do not want this war to escalate beyond what it has already done to the Ukrainian people." The US State Department summoned the Russian ambassador.
Kirby told CNN on Tuesday evening: "We reject the denial of the Russians, of course." He warned that after a year of Russia's war against Ukraine, everyone should treat everything Russians say about activities in and around Ukraine with the utmost caution. The Black Sea borders both Russia and Ukraine. Asked if the U.S. could provide evidence to support their account, Kirby said, "We're looking at some images to see if they're suitable to be released. But we haven't made a decision yet."