Russia warns the US to stop its "hostile" flights near its border and says it will try to recover the downed drone

By Aina J. Khan —

Russia demanded the United States this Wednesday to cease its "hostile" activity near its border, and also assured that it will try to recover the remains of the unmanned military drone that two of its fighters harassed until colliding with it, forcing the Pentagon to shoot it down on Tuesday over international waters of the Black Sea.

Two Russian Su-27 fighters followed the surveillance drone as it flew in international airspace over the Black Sea, which borders Turkey, Ukraine and Russia, among other countries, according to the US European Military Command.

In addition, "they dumped fuel and flew in front of the MQ-9 Reaper drone in a reckless (...) and unprofessional manner," it added in a statement.

A Russian plane collided with the drone's propeller, the Defense Department reported, calling the incident a

and summoning the Russian ambassador to lodge a diplomatic protest.

Russia denied that its planes came into "contact" with the drone and singled out the United States as the culprit, accusing it of provocation by conducting surveillance near Russian airspace to help Ukraine after the 2022 Russian invasion. 

Russian authorities also said on Wednesday that they hope to recover the remains of the US drone: "I don't know if we will be able to get it or not," said Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the National Security Council, according to the state news agency Tass, but "without doubt" we will work to achieve it, he added.

Sergei Naryshkin, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, said his country has the ability to recover the drone fragments.

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Summoned to a meeting at the State Department in Washington DC, Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said the United States has to "stop making incursions near the Russian border."

"We perceive any action involving the use of US military weapons and equipment as openly hostile," he added in a statement on the Telegram social network.

Antonov insisted that the Kremlin fighters did not hit the drone or use its weapons, repeating earlier claims by the Russian Defense Ministry, which said it had sent the planes after the drone entered an area near Crimea that Russia considers within the limits of its military operation in Ukraine.

“The unacceptable actions of the US military in the vicinity of our borders are cause for concern,” Antonov stated, “they collect intelligence information, which is later used by Ukraine to attack our armed forces and our territory.”

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The ambassador claimed that Russia "does not seek confrontation" but the incident highlighted rising tensions over the war, with the Russian regime keen to dissuade the United States from maintaining its support for Ukraine.

The incident is a sign that Russia is "ready to expand the conflict zone with the participation of other parties" in the "hope that it will change" the course of the war, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security Council, said on Wednesday. and Defense of Ukraine, on the social network Twitter.

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has called on Russia to respect international airspace.

"The key here is for all parties

and we urge the Russians to do so," he told the Reuters news agency.

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Two defense officials claimed that the Russian plane that collided with the drone did not crash but landed in Crimea.

They added that it is the first time they are aware of a Russian plane dropping fuel on a US aircraft during an interception maneuver.

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The US has erased the drone's software and is considering its options for salvaging the wreckage, but Russia can get there faster, the officials said.

The United States would have to send a ship across the Bosphorus Strait from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea, while Russia has ships in the Black Sea. 

In recent months, Turkey has resisted allowing US and other warships to pass through the strait.