KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and the United States ratcheted up their confrontational rhetoric Wednesday over a US surveillance drone that encountered Russian warplanes and crashed near Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, which the Kremlin has illegally annexed. At the same time, both countries pledged to try to avoid escalation.
The Kremlin said the incident proved again that Washington is directly involved in the fighting and added that Moscow would try to recover the drone’s wreckage from the Black Sea. US officials said the incident showed Russia’s aggressive and risky behavior and pledged to continue their surveillance.
Russia has long voiced concern about US surveillance flights near its borders, but Tuesday’s incident signaled Moscow’s increasing readiness to raise the ante as tensions soar between the two nuclear powers. It reflected the Kremlin’s appetite for brinkmanship that could further destabilize the situation and lead to more direct confrontations.
Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said in televised remarks the drone incident was “another confirmation” of direct US involvement in the Ukraine conflict. The Kremlin has repeatedly said the United States and other NATO members have become direct war participants by supplying weapons and intelligence to the Kyiv government and pressuring it not to negotiate peace.
Patrushev, a confidant of President Vladimir Putin, also said Russia planned to search for the drone’s debris. A US official said it was unclear whether Washington would recover the fragments, presumed to be in deep water, after securing the information the drone had gathered.
“I don’t know if we can recover them or not, but we will certainly have to do that, and we will deal with it,” Patrushev said.
US officials said Russia has dispatched ships to try to recover the wreckage.
The US has no vessels in the Black Sea to recover the drone because Turkey shut the Bosphorus Strait to warships in 2022, except for those returning to home port.
(1) comment
"""Biden meets with NATO allies""" to Divide the Ukrainian Skim Money with his fellow...... "Upper Crust Grifters"....... on a Global scale. 😉 Ukraine is a Scam...and Biden (the Pedophile) and his Family...are Rat Holing a Fortune...no doubt. Enjoy higher Taxes Cowards...someone's gotta fund the Dog and Pony show. ""The People get the Government...They Deserve""
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