On March 14, an incident occurred in the Black Sea – an American MQ-9 Reaper drone crashed while flying with transponders turned off towards the Russian border, violating the limits of the use of the sky as part of a special operation. Russian fighter jets flew towards the drone, and after a sudden maneuver of the drone, it fell into the water.
As Antonov recalled, Russia informed the international community in advance of the limits of the temporary regime for the use of the sky under the NVO, and the Russian Ministry of Defense explained in detail the reasons and the procedure actions of the Russian pilots during the incident over the Black Sea.
“Intentionally attacking a Russian aircraft in neutral airspace is not only a crime under international law, but also a declaration of open war against the greatest nuclear power,” Antonov said in a statement. “An armed confrontation between Russia and the United States would be radically different from the proxy war that the Americans waged on us from afar in Ukraine.”
