WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III had a rare phone call with his Russian counterpart after the collision between a Russian fighter jet and a US spy drone, as senior leaders The Pentagon tried to act quickly to prevent the incident from increasing tensions between the two sides. two superpowers.
Mr. Austin said he called Russia’s Defense Minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, on Wednesday to clear the air. He declined to say whether Mr Shoigu would repeat his country’s denial that a Russian fighter jet swipe US MQ-9 Reaperplunges it into the Black Sea, but he says just having a conversation is crucial before events.
“I just spoke on the phone with my Russian counterpart, Minister Shoigu,” Austin said at a Pentagon news conference. “As I have said many times, it is important for great powers to be a model of transparency and communication, and that the United States will continue to fly and operate wherever international law allows.”
Shoigu countered that the incident was caused by the United States’ failure to comply with the no-fly zone declared by Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. It called US drone flights off the coast of Crimea “provocative in nature”.
Russia initially denied that its warplanes were responsible, saying in a statement on Tuesday that after the Russian Air Force deployed the fighter jets to determine unmanned aerial vehicle, the US drone made a sudden turn, lost altitude and plunged into the water.
General Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also spoke with his Russian counterpart, General Valery V. Gerasimov. The two leaders discussed “a number of security concerns,” a spokesman for General Milley said in a brief statement.
In the nearly 13 months since Russia invaded Ukraine, General Gerasimov often avoided talking to General Milley. The two last spoke at the end of October.
The phone calls underscore the gravity of the drone incident, in which the Pentagon said it shot down a reconnaissance drone at sea after a Russian warplane collided with it. its propeller. This is the first known physical contact between the Russian and US militaries since the war in Ukraine began, bringing the two countries closer to direct conflict at a time when tensions in the region are running high. High.
The Pentagon said it was working to declassify surveillance footage from the drone that would show the crash.
General Milley told reporters at the Pentagon that the drone was submerged in water between 4,000 and 5,000 feet deep. That depth will make recovery difficult, he said. He said defense officials have not yet decided whether they will attempt to recover the debris, as the United States does not have any naval vessels in the Black Sea at the moment. But he pointed out that US allies could help restore the drones if necessary.
“Honestly, there’s probably not much to recover from,” General Milley said. “As for the loss of any sensitive intelligence etc., as usual, we will and we have taken mitigations, so we are pretty confident that anything. valuable will no longer be valuable.”
A defense official said the Pentagon had “remotely wiped” sensitive intelligence from the drones. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
Russia demanded an end to US military flights near its territory. But Mr. Austin said earlier on Wednesday, at the start of a video conference on Ukraine with allies, that the United States would continue to send surveillance planes over international waters, including the Black Sea.
US and Ukraine say unarmed US drones are flying in international airspace over a regular surveillance and reconnaissance Mission. U.S. and Ukrainian officials say they share intelligence gathered from such missions, particularly regarding the threat posed by Russian warships and submarines in the Black Sea.
New details emerge about what happened in the approximately 40 minutes leading up to the collision. During that time, while the drone was flying at an altitude of about 25,000 feet, two Russian Su-27 fighter jets made 19 high-speed flights near the Reaper, dumping jet fuel on it. for the last three or four times, a senior US military official said. Wednesday.
The collision occurred on the final leg, when one of the Russian planes approached the drone at high speed from behind. The official said that when the plane took off suddenly, it collided with the rear propeller of the MQ-9. ABC News previously reported details of the collision.
One of MQ-9’s propellers was damaged in the collision, and while there was a temporary loss of communication between the drone and the operator, the pilots were eventually able to bring the aircraft down. $32 million plane into waters about 75 miles southwest. Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, which Russia has used as a base to launch devastating attacks.
The official said both Russian warplanes had returned to their bases in Crimea, but it was unclear what damage the Russian plane involved in the collision suffered, if any.
Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council, said on Wednesday that Russia was trying to retrieve the drone’s wreckage.
“I don’t know if we can get it,” he said. “But we need to do it, and we will certainly do it. I hope, of course, for success.”
Valerie Hopkins contribution report from Berlin.
