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A Russian fighter jet struck the propeller of a US surveillance drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday in what a US spokeman called a “brazen violation of international law”, forcing the US military to bring down the unmanned aerial vehicle. Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, called the incident a “provocation”. Read our live blog for all the latest developments. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
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6:18am: US says Russian warplane strikes US drone over Black Sea
A Russian fighter jet struck the propeller of a US surveillance drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday, forcing the US military to bring down the unmanned aerial vehicle.
State Department spokesman Ned Price called the act a “brazen violation of international law”. He said the US had summoned the Russian ambassador to lodge a protest while the US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, has made similar representations in Moscow.
But Russia insisted its warplanes didn’t hit the MQ-9 Reaper drone. Instead, it said the drone maneuvered sharply and crashed into the water following an encounter with Russian fighter jets that had been scrambled to intercept it near Crimea.
The incident, which added to Russia-US tensions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, appeared to be the first time since the height of the Cold War that a US aircraft was brought down after an encounter with a Russian warplane.
4:08am: Moscow sees drone incident as a ‘provocation’
Russia views the drone incident, which involved one of its Su-27 fighter jets over the Black Sea, as a “provocation”, its ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, said in remarks published early on Wednesday.
“The American UAV deliberately and provocatively was moving towards Russian territory with transponders turned off,” Antonov said in remarks posted on his embassy’s website,…
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