Russia-Ukraine live news: US says Russian jets caused drone crash

• Washington said a Russian fighter plane caused a US spy drone to crash into the Black Sea on Tuesday, marking the first direct encounter between US and Russian forces since Moscow invaded Ukraine more than a year ago.
• Russia said the US drone intruded in an area declared off-limits and that fighter jets scrambled to intercept the drone but did not cause it to crash.
• ‘Very sensitive stage’ says analyst about timing of drone crash
• Commenting on the incident, Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said it was a “very sensitive stage in this conflict because it really is the first direct contact that the public knows about between the West and Russia.”
• Russian President Vladimir Putin says he invaded Ukraine to defend Russia from a hostile West bent on expanding into historically Russian territories.
• Ukraine and its Western allies say Russia is waging an unprovoked war of conquest that has destroyed Ukrainian cities, killed thousands of people and forced millions more to flee their homes.
• US yet to confirm whether drone recovery under way
• The US has not yet recovered the crashed Reaper drone and neither has Russia, the US Air Forces in Europe said in a statement.
• US officials declined to say whether any effort was under way to gather debris or pieces of the MQ-9 Reaper, valued at more than $30m.
• Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said the Russian Su-27 aircraft involved in the incident appeared to have been damaged but it did land, although Ryder would not say where.
• This is not the first US Reaper to have been lost in recent years, including to hostile fire.
• One was shot down in 2019 over Yemen with a surface-to-air missile, the US Central Command said at the time.
• According to media reports, a US MQ-9 Reaper crashed in Libya in 2022, while another went down during a training exercise in Romania earlier in the same year.
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• Australia says Russia not playing by ‘rules’, must explain US drone crashAustralia’s defence minister has accused Russia of “not playing by the rules” after the US drone crashed into the Black Sea.“What’s clear here is that Russia has not acted in a professional way and that has resulted in the downing of this drone,” Defence Minister and current acting Australian Prime Minister Richard Marles told a news conference.“Russia has much explaining to do,” he said.Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles speaks to the media in 2022 [File: Caroline Chia]
• UK defence secretary calls on Russia to respect international airspaceThe United Kingdom’s Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has urged Moscow to respect international airspace after the US military drone crashed into the Black Sea following an intercept by Russian fighter jets.“The key here is that all parties respect international air space and we urge the Russians to do so,” Wallace told the Reuters news agency during a visit to Tokyo.“The Americans have said they think it is unprofessional,” he added.Ukraine map showing Crimea and Russia. 
• Russian ambassador says US drones gathering intelligence for KyivRussian ambassador Anatoly Antonov said the downed US drone was flying with its transponders – which allows identification of an aircraft – switched off and was moving “deliberately and provocatively towards” Russian territory.“The unacceptable actions of the United States military in the close proximity to our borders are cause for concern. We are well aware of the missions such reconnaissance and strike drones are used for,” the ambassador to the US said on his Telegram channel on Wednesday.US drone flights in the region gather intelligence “which is later used by the Kiev regime to attack our armed forces and territory”, he said.
• Earlier, Antonov asked how the US would feel if a Russian drone flew off the US coast.
• “This [United States] drone can carry 1,700 kilos of explosives. This drone can carry a few bombs… What will be the reaction of the United States if you see such Russian drones very close, for example, to San Francisco or New York,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
• “What will be the reaction of the United States? For me it’s clear. For you as well.”
• How common are US and Russian military intercepts in the air?This is not the first time the Pentagon has publicly condemned Russian planes flying close to US aircraft thatMilitary intercepts – either in the air or at sea – are routine and have happened several times with Russian and US aircraft in the Black Sea and in the Pacific, particularly in the north.In 2020, Russian jets crossed in front of a US B-52 bomber flying over the Black Sea and flew as close as 30 meters (100 ft) in front of the bomber’s nose, causing turbulence.In 2021, Russian warplanes buzzed the USS Donald Cook, a Navy destroyer that had been taking part in a major exercise in the Black Sea.Last month, US fighter jets intercepted two Russian TU-95 bombers in international airspace off Alaska’s coast and “escorted them” for 12 minutes, according to the Pentagon.A Russian TU-95 bomber flies through airspace northwest of Japan’s Okinoshima island, Fukuoka prefecture in the southern island of Kyushu, in 2013 [File: Defense Ministry of Japan]
• And Russian aircraft have done similar missions and also buzzed US Navy ships in the Pacific.In most of the cases, the intercepts are deemed safe and professional.Unlike an unmanned drone, the deliberate downing of a crewed aircraft – injuring or killing crew members – could be considered an act of war.
• What is a MQ-9 Reaper drone?The MQ-9 Reaper drone is a large, unmanned US Air Force aircraft remotely operated by a two-person team.It includes a ground control station and satellite equipment and has a 66-foot (20-meter) wingspan.Used routinely during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for surveillance and air attacks, the Reaper can be either armed or unarmed.It can carry up to eight laser-guided missiles, including Hellfire missiles and other sophisticated munitions, and can loiter over targets for about 24 hours.A US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone armed with GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided munitions and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles
• It is about 11 metres (36 feet) long, 3.6 metres (12 feet) high and weighs about 12,200 kg (4,900 pounds). It can fly at an altitude of up to 15 km (50,000 feet) and has a range of about 2,500 km (1,400 nautical miles).The Reaper’s operations team includes a rated pilot responsible for flying the aircraft and an enlisted aircrew member charged with operating the sensors and guiding weapons.The Reaper, which first began operating in 2007, replaced the US Air Force’s smaller Predator drones. Each Reaper costs about $32 million.
• US says downing of drone by Russia was ‘unsafe and unprofessional
• ’Patrick Ryder, the press secretary for the US defence department, said Russia’s downing of the drone “demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional”.
• The US Air Force “routinely fly aircraft throughout Europe over sovereign territory and throughout international airspace in coordination with applicable host nations and international laws in order to bolster collective European defence and security,” Ryder said in a press briefing.“
• US and Allied aircraft will continue to operate in international air space and we call on the Russians to conduct themselves professionally and safely,” he said.
• Washington, Moscow appear wary of escalation over drone incident
• Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, DC, said that comments by Russia’s US envoy, Antonov, on the drone crash, appeared to be more of a “justification than a denial”.
• The ambassador’s comments were also at variance with the Russian foreign ministry, which said its jets were not the reason for the drone going down.“
• But there we heard from the Russian ambassador implying that it was justified – the Russian action – because the drone was too close to what he defines as Russian territory, which is the Crimean coast,” Hanna said.“
• However, on the record, the Russian foreign ministry statement still stands. It’s rejected by the United States, which has sharply criticised the incident.”
• Given the ongoing tensions between Moscow and Washington over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Hanna said the drone incident was “potentially very serious”.“
• Any incident like this with the situation as tenuous as it is, is a problem for both sides. But what we are seeing here is an attempt perhaps by both sides not to allow the situation to escalate further,” Hanna said.
• Russian envoy calls for caution after drone crash
• Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, after being summoned by the State Department on Tuesday, said there was a need for caution “regarding our actions taking into account what is going on in eastern part of Europe”.
• Referring to the circumstances regarding the downing of the US drone in the Black Sea, the ambassador said the US does not recognise Crimea as a part of the Russian Federation, but asked if it was necessary for the US “to provoke Russian navy or Russian air force on this issue”.
• “We can see that Crimea is a part of Russian Federation. United States does not recognise this status,” he told reporters.
• “We prefer to not to create a situation where we can face unintended clashes or unintended incidents between the Russian Federation and the United States,” the ambassador added.
• Russia has declared broad areas near Crimea as off-limits to flights. The drone crashed into the sea after Russian fighter jets had scrambled to intercept it near Crimea.
• Russia said its fighter jets did not come into contact with the drone, which it said had manoeuvred sharply before crashing into the sea.
• US, Russia give conflicting accounts of drone incident
• United States and Russian officials have given conflicting accounts of what occurred between a US surveillance drone and two Russian fighter jets after the downing of the drone in the Black Sea on Tuesday.
• The Pentagon said that two Russian Su-27 fighter jets had dumped fuel on the MQ-9 Reaper drone, which was conducting a routine surveillance mission in international airspace over the Black Sea.
• The Russian jets also flew around and in front of the drone several times for 30 to 40 minutes and then one of the Russian aircraft struck the “unmanned aerial vehicle’s propeller, causing US forces to bring it down into international waters of the Black Sea early this morning,” the US Department of Defense said in a statement.
• Russia’s Defence Ministry said the Russian aircraft were scrambling to intercept the drone but did not use their weapons and “didn’t come into contact” with the US aircraft.

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