Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley spoke with their Russian counterparts by phone Wednesday, amid mounting tensions over the loss of a U.S. surveillance drone in the Black Sea. U.S. officials said the MQ-9 drone was forced down Tuesday morning local time after colliding with a Russian fighter jet that repeatedly dumped fuel on the aircraft.
Ukraine briefing: Austin and Milley speak with Russian counterparts as tensions rise over drone crash
“The United States will fly and operate wherever international law allows,” Austin said at a news conference Wednesday. He was flanked by top U.S. general, Mark Milley, who said it wasn’t yet clear if the Russian pilot deliberately struck the drone.
“We know that the intercept was intentional. We know that the aggressive behavior was intentional,” Milley said. “We also know it was very unprofessional and very unsafe.”
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Key developments
- The incident began early Tuesday morning when two Russian fighter jets approached the drone, which had been launched from Romania by U.S. personnel stationed there, according to U.S. officials. After repeatedly dumping fuel on the U.S. aircraft, one of the jets collided with the propeller on the rear of the drone, officials said.
- Moscow says that its aircraft did not come into direct contact with the drone. The two Russian fighter jets instead sought to identify the unmanned aerial vehicle as it approached the Russian Federation, after which it “made a sharp U-turn and crashed,” Russia’s ambassador to the United States said in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV.
- Russia will try to retrieve the wreckage of the drone, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev told Russian media Wednesday. According to a U.S. defense official, military operators took steps to wipe its electronics in hopes of rendering the wreckage useless for intelligence collection. “We are quite confident that whatever was of value is no longer of value,” Milley said, adding that the U.S. military knew where the debris was in the Black Sea. “We know where it landed.”
- Shoigu and Austin discussed the drone incident, which Moscow said was a result of U.S. actions in a restricted flight zone near Crimea, according to a statement Wednesday from the Russian Defense Ministry. The statement said that U.S. drone flights in the area were “provocative in nature” and that the two nuclear powers “should act as responsibly as possible,” including by maintaining open channels of communication between the Russian and U.S. militaries.
- Milley also spoke with Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, and discussed “several security-related issues of concern,” the Pentagon said in a statement. Milley said earlier that he was not sure whether the collision was intentional, but said it was clear that Russian pilots had committed a number of recent aggressive acts against American and allied aircraft. “There is a pattern of behavior going on here, and we have to figure out exactly what the way ahead is,” he said, adding that doing so was “one of the fundamental reasons for my call to General Gerasimov.”
MQ-9 Reaper
Primary function: Intelligence collection
in support of strike, coordination
and reconnaissance missions.
Wingspan: 66 feet
Range: 1,150 miles
Unit cost: About $30 million
Crew (remote): Two (pilot and sensor operator)
Payload: 3,750 pounds
Ceiling: Up to 50,000 feet
Note: Data current as of March 2021
Source: U.S. Air Force
THE WASHINGTON POST
MQ-9 Reaper
Primary function: Intelligence collection in support of strike, coordination
and reconnaissance missions.
Wingspan: 66 feet
Range: 1,150 miles
Payload: 3,750 pounds
Ceiling: Up to 50,000 feet
Unit cost: About $30 million
Crew (remote): Two (pilot and sensor operator)
Note: Data current as of March 2021
Source: U.S. Air Force
THE WASHINGTON POST
Global impact
- Prominent Republicans criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — a potential GOP presidential contender — after he said the war in Ukraine was a “territorial dispute.” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) told the New York Times he “could not disagree more,” and Sen. John Cornyn (Tex.) told Politico he was “disturbed” by DeSantis’s comments.
- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is in Moscow for talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, according to his official Telegram account. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the leaders will discuss relations between the two nations, as well as the situation in Syria.
- China, Russia and Iran are conducting joint military exercises in the Gulf of Oman for five days starting Wednesday, China’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. Similar maritime drills with the three nations’ navies were held in 2019 and 2022, Beijing officials said.
- Hungary further delayed NATO ratification for Sweden and Finland. The ruling Fidesz party confirmed the postponement of the process to Reuters after an opposition lawmaker said Fidesz was delaying a parliamentary session that was set for next week. Stockholm and Helsinki have sought to enter the transatlantic alliance, but acceptance requires a sign-off from all NATO members.
- Denmark will provide Ukraine with $1 billion worth of military, civilian and business aid this year, the Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday. The majority of the money will be spent on weaponry, military equipment and training efforts for Kyiv.
From our correspondents
A railroad fan photographed Putin’s armored train. Now he lives in exile: Train fanatic Mikhail Korotkov spent years documenting unique trains, including a particularly unusual one belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was the first train enthusiast to post a photo of the sleek, silver train with red and gray detailing.
But his passion has put him in a precarious position, Robyn Dixon reports. An intimidating transcript of his private phone conversations was delivered to him — via messages on his YouTube page — in what Korotkov interpreted as a threat from the Kremlin.
Afraid for his safety, Korotkov has fled Russia. “The hardest thing was to finally realize that emigration was the only solution, and to give up my past life and start from zero,” he said.
Natalia Abbakumova, Karen DeYoung and Dan Lamothe contributed to this report.