Russia’s defense minister has ordered his officials to prepare a “response” to U.S. drone flights over the Black Sea, the ministry said Friday, in an apparent warning that Moscow could take aggressive action to repel American reconnaissance aircraft.
The Russian Defense Ministry noted a recent “increased intensity” of U.S. drones over the Black Sea, saying they “conduct intelligence and targeting searches for precision weapons supplied to the Ukrainian military by Western countries for strikes on Russian facilities.”
“This shows increased involvement of the United States and other NATO countries in the conflict in Ukraine on the side of the Kiev regime,” the ministry said in a statement.
He noted that “such flights significantly increase the likelihood of incidents involving Russian military aircraft, which increases the risk of direct confrontation between the alliance and the Russian Federation.”
“NATO members will bear the responsibility,” he added.
The ministry said Defense Minister Andrei Belousov asked the General Staff to “make proposals on measures of operational response to provocations.”
Washington and Moscow have already clashed over American drones in the Black Sea. an incident that occurred in 2023a Russian fighter jet damaged an American drone there, causing it to crash. A repeat of such a confrontation could further inflame tensions the war in Ukraine.
On March 14, 2023, a Russian Air Force Su-27 fighter jet intercepted and damaged a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone, causing it to crash into the Black Sea. This was the first direct clash between Russian and U.S. forces since the Cold War.
The Pentagon and U.S. European Command said after the incident that two Russian Su-27 jets dumped fuel on the MQ-9, which was carrying out a routine surveillance mission over the Black Sea in international airspace.
The Russian Defense Ministry then said the U.S. drone was flying near the Russian border and entering an area declared off-limits by Russian authorities.
Russia has declared large areas near Crimea off-limits to flights. Since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and well before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has accused U.S. surveillance planes of flying too close to its borders while ignoring warnings issued by Russia.
Friday’s Russian statement follows a Ukrainian attack on Sevastopol over the weekend using U.S.-made ATACMS missiles that killed four people and wounded about 150, Russian authorities said.
Russian officials have claimed the United States was directly involved in the attack by providing intelligence and targeting, and have warned of retaliatory measures.
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