Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov has branded this Tuesday as “provocation” the maneuvers of an American drone over the waters of the Black Sea after hitting a Russian Air Force SU-27 fighter against the unmanned vehicle.
“I think this is a real provocation. This provoked us to perform certain actions after which one could blame Russia or the Russian Army for some kind of lack of professionalism,” he said, according to the TASS news agency.
Antonov, who has reiterated that the aircraft was flying with the transponders turned off, spoke these words to the press after being summoned by the US State Department and leave a meeting to explain what happened to the United States ambassador in Moscow, Lynne Tracy.
According to the command of the US forces, one of the Russian fighters flying over the Black Sea hit one of the drone’s propellers, which led the US authorities to shoot it down at sea. According to the Pentagon, Russian planes flew close to the device for more than 30 minutes before that it fell into the waters of the Black Sea, without its remains being able to be recovered.
For their part, the Russian authorities have stated that the Russian military at no time They did not use weapons nor did they come into contact with the US dronewhich was flying with the transponders turned off and violating the delimited area “in accordance with international standards” to carry out overflights in international airspace.