Array
Moscow warned the United States on Wednesday to keep its aircraft away from Russia’s claimed airspace as the two nations traded blame over the downing of an American surveillance drone above the Black Sea.
Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to Washington, claimed the US drone had “deliberately and provocatively” approached Moscow’s airspace, forcing Russia to react.
“The unacceptable activity of the US military in the close proximity to our borders is a cause for concern,” Antonov said. “They gather intelligence, which is subsequently used by the Kyiv [Ukraine] regime to strike at our armed forces and territory.”
He further called on Washington to “stop making sorties near the Russian borders.”
“Let us ask a rhetorical question: if, for example, a Russian strike zone appeared near New York or San Francisco, how would the US Air Force and Navy react?” Antonov said.
The US military said it had to ditch the MQ-9 Reaper in international waters after one of two Russian Su-27 fighter jets conducting an “unsafe and unprofessional intercept” struck the drone’s propeller Tuesday morning.
The incident is believed to be the first time since the Cold War that an American aircraft crashed because of an encounter with a Russian warplane.
