Russia’s Defense Minister has ordered authorities to prepare a “response” to US drone flights over the Black Sea, the ministry said on Friday, in an apparent warning that Moscow may take strong action to fend off reconnaissance planes. Americans.
The Russian Defense Ministry noted a recent “increase in intensity” of U.S. drones over the Black Sea, saying they “conduct intelligence and targeting information from precision weapons provided to the Ukrainian military by Western countries for attacks on Russian facilities.”
“This shows greater involvement of the US and other NATO countries in the conflict in Ukraine, alongside the Kiev regime,” the ministry said in a statement.
It 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 be responsible for this,” he added.
The ministry said Defense Minister Andrei Belousov instructed the General Staff to “make proposals on measures of operative response to provocations.”
Washington and Moscow have already clashed over US drones in the Black Sea. In an incident from 2023, a Russian fighter jet damaged an American drone there, causing it to crash. A repetition of such a confrontation could further fuel tensions the war in Ukraine.
On March 14, 2023, a Russian Air Force Su-27 fighter intercepted and damaged a US MQ-9 Reaper drone, causing it to crash into the Black Sea. The incident marked the first direct confrontation between Russian and American forces since the Cold War.
The Pentagon and US European Command said after the incident that two Russian Su-27 aircraft dumped fuel on the MQ-9, which was conducting a routine surveillance mission over the Black Sea in international airspace.
The Russian Defense Ministry then said that the US drone was flying near the Russian border and invaded an area that had been declared off-limits by Russian authorities.
Russia has declared wide areas near Crimea off-limits to flights. Since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and long before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has accused US surveillance planes of flying too close to its borders, ignoring warnings issued by Russia.
Friday’s Russian statement follows a Ukrainian attack on Sevastopol over the weekend with U.S.-made ATACMS missiles that killed four people and injured about 150, according to Russian authorities.
Russian officials claimed that the US was directly involved in the attack, providing information and guidance, and warned against taking retaliatory measures.
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