Russia issued an ominous warning over U.S. spy drones in the Black Sea, vowing that its forces will adopt "rapid response measures" to prevent potential incidents in airspace.
Russia's Defense Ministry said on Friday that U.S. drones are appearing more frequently over the Black Sea, and accused Washington of using them to conduct reconnaissance and share intelligence with Kyiv to assist with the use of precision weapons supplied by the West.
It said Russia's new defense minister Andrei Belousov has instructed the army's General Staff to take action against the U.S. drones.
The U.S. previously responded to warnings from Moscow on the matter by saying that it would continue its missions in the region near the Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. "We're going to continue to fly and operate in international airspace over international waters. The Black Sea belongs to no one nation," White House adviser John Kirby said last March.
The warning from Russia comes after Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin spoke with Belousov by phone on Tuesday for the first time.
The increased flights of U.S. drones over the Black Sea "indicates the increasing involvement of the United States and NATO countries in the conflict in Ukraine on the side of Kyiv," the Defense Ministry said in a statement on Telegram.
"Such flights greatly increase the likelihood of airspace incidents with aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces, which increases the risk of direct confrontation between the alliance and the Russian Federation."
"NATO countries will be responsible for this," the ministry said. "The Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Andrey Belousov instructed the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to make proposals for measures to promptly respond to provocations."
Newsweek has contacted the Pentagon for comment by email.
The warning comes days after a Russian newspaper claimed, citing a local Telegram channel, that the country's military could have shot down a U.S. surveillance drone over the Black Sea.
Pravda, a Russian daily broadsheet, ran an article with the subhead: "The Russian Aerospace Forces may have shot down an American drone over the Black Sea." The newspaper said the information was first circulated by the Fighterbomber Telegram channel, which has links to the Russian Aerospace Forces.
Pravda reported "it is possible that the downed drone could have been an RQ-4 Global Hawk."
The U.S. and Russia have both denied the incident.
Idrees Ali, a national security correspondent for Reuters, said on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday: "A U.S. military official says no incident has been reported over the Black Sea."
"To be honest, I don't have this kind of information," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters at a press briefing on Tuesday.
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Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel ... Read more
