The U.S. urged Russia to be careful when flying in international airspace

U.S. officials have told the Russian ambassador to the United States that Moscow should be more careful when flying in international airspace.

National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said this after a U.S. military drone intercepted by Russian fighter jets crashed into the Black Sea.

The State Department summoned Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, on Tuesday to express U.S. concerns about the incident, the first since the war in Ukraine began more than a year ago.

“We told the Russian ambassador that (Russian pilots) should be very careful when flying in international airspace near U.S. targets who, again, are flying perfectly legally, carrying out missions in support of our national security interests,” Kirby told CNN.

Kirby also said the MQ-9 reconnaissance drone has not been found and probably never will be, given the depth of the Black Sea where it went down.

“We are still evaluating whether any efforts can be made to retrieve it. There probably won’t be any,” he clarified.

Recall that the Pentagon said Tuesday that one of the Russian Su-27 jets struck the propeller of the drone, causing it to malfunction and fall.

Meanwhile, Alexei Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, expressed concern about the incident on Twitter.

“The incident with the American MQ-9 Reaper UAV provoked by Russia in the Black Sea is a signal of Putin’s readiness to expand the conflict zone involving other parties,” he wrote.

According to him, Russia’s tactic is to go ahead with a “constant raising of the stakes” in the hope of reversing the “conditions of Russia’s strategic defeat” in its war in Ukraine.

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