Russia disputes US account of drone downing over Black Sea

BLOOMBERG

A Russian fighter jet collided with a US surveillance drone in international airspace above the Black Sea, causing the American aircraft to crash, the Pentagon said.
Russia’s defense ministry denied the US claim, saying its jets didn’t come into contact with the drone, according to a statement posted on Telegram. The statement said the drone’s transponders were off, and it flew out of control and crashed “as a result of sharp maneuvering” and that the Russian aircraft returned safety to their base.
The US European command said the Su-27 warplane, accompanied by a second Russian jet, struck the propeller of the MQ-9 Reaper drone in what was an “unsafe and unprofessional” intercept at around 7 am local time. The two Russian fighter jets flew in front of and dumped fuel on the drone before the strike, it said.
Russia sought to retrieve a US drone that crashed in the Black Sea after being hit by a Russian fighter jet. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called the incident “reckless.”
“I’m not sure whether we will be able to retrieve it or not, but it’s definitely true that we need to and are trying,” Russia’s Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said in comments posted by a state TV reporter.
The US will continue its drone flights in international airspace in the wake of a Russian aircraft’s interference with a surveillance drone over the Black Sea, Austin said.
“This hazardous episode is part of a pattern of aggressive, risky, and unsafe actions by Russian pilots in international airspace,” Austin said at the 10th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. “So make no mistake. The United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows. And it is incumbent upon Russia to operate its military aircraft in a safe and professional manner.”
“The Americans are always saying that they’re not participating in military action,” Patrushev said. “But this is the latest confirmation that they are directly involved in this war.”
Meanwhile, Britain’s top court declared that a judge should pore over Russian attempts to strong-arm Ukraine into buying the bond, giving the green light to a full-blown London trial.
The long-awaited decision allows Ukraine to argue that the bond, sold in 2013 on the eve of the revolution in Kyiv, was part of unlawful political and military aggression from Moscow. The judges gave their decision on Wednesday in a ruling that knocks out Russian attempts to win the case and allows Ukraine to stave off any further repayments.
Poland has received “clear declarations” from allies willing to deliver Soviet-era fighter jets to Ukraine in an effort to press back the Russian invasion, a government spokesman in Warsaw said.
Slovakia, Poland’s Nato neighbour to the south, has also raised the prospect of MiG deliveries, though a decision has been held up by political infighting ahead of an early election in September.
Other Nato allies with MiG jets in their inventories include, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania.