Moscow assured this Wednesday that it does not want a direct confrontation with Washington, but it did not reduce the tensions caused by the incident on Tuesday in the Black Sea that involved an American drone and two Russian fighters. The Russian ambassador in the American capital, Anatoli Antonov, described what happened as a “provocation” and demanded that the US put an end to the flights along the Russian borders.
The diplomat repeated some of the arguments given the day before by the Russian Ministry of Defense. Antonov assured that the drone of the US armed forces was flying with the transponders turned off and, in addition, “entered the zone of the special military operation” of Russia in Ukraine.
Russia at the time “warned everyone about this zone”, the airspace used provisionally by Russia in the framework of its actions in Ukraine. Therefore, “I think this is a real provocation,” Antonov said in statements collected by the Tass agency.
According to the ambassador, in this way they tried to force Moscow to “take certain actions” in order to later “blame Russia, the Russian military, for any lack of professionalism.”
Antonov was summoned by the US State Department after the US military reported on Tuesday the interception of its MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea by two Russian Su-27 fighters.
According to the American version, one of the Russian planes collided with the drone. The device therefore became uncontrollable, forcing the US to shoot down its own ship on purpose.
According to the Russian version, the Russian fighters did not use their weapons and “did not come into contact” with the American drone.
Antonov, who described the meeting he held with the Undersecretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, Karen Donfried, as “constructive”, assured in that meeting that Moscow does not want a confrontation with the United States and that it is interested in “pragmatic relations in the interest of the peoples” of both countries.
The US side lodged a protest “over, as they said, ‘the unprofessional actions of the Russian side,'” the Russian representative said.
Antonov stressed that Russia did not use weapons against the US drone. “Russian pilots acted very professionally, there was no contact, there was no use of weapons by our fighters,” he stressed.
For him the most important thing is that Russia rejects the presence of the US military in the Black Sea. American planes and ships “have nothing to do” near the Russian borders. “Can you imagine such a plane, a drone, suddenly appearing near New York or San Francisco?” he commented.
“We start from the basis that the United States will refrain from speculation in the media space and will end flights along the Russian borders,” the ambassador said in a note posted on the Telegram channel of the Russian embassy in Washington.
“I remind you that Washington has supplied Kyiv with production for military use in the amount of 33,000 million dollars… It is obvious that the United States is precisely escalating the situation that can lead to a direct armed conflict,” he warned.
And he pointed out that Russia will consider as “frankly hostile” any action with US weapons and equipment.
