Kremlin blames US military for drone incident
The Kremlin has blamed Washington for the crash of a US military drone over the Black Sea. “Perhaps those who are not entitled should not have flown there, then everything would have been clean,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Russian state television on Wednesday. The United States had previously raised allegations that Russian fighter jets had dumped fuel on the drone. According to the Pentagon, the drone was traveling in international airspace.
The military incident between the US and Russia over the Black Sea has heightened international concerns that the war in Ukraine could escalate and more states be drawn into the conflict. “All incidents that provoke a clash between the two superpowers, the two largest nuclear powers, lead to great risks,” Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov commented on these fears, also on state television in the evening. Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said that at Washington’s request, Defense Ministers Sergei Shoigu and Lloyd Austin spoke on the phone.
Russia launched a war of aggression against Ukraine more than a year ago. Among other things, Russia is also attacking the neighboring country from the Black Sea area. At the same time, Moscow accuses the West of interfering in the conflict and, for example, providing Ukraine with reconnaissance data that is also obtained through drone flights.