Blinken says drone incident with Russia ‘is being investigated’
US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said that Russia’s downing of a US military surveillance drone over the Black Sea “is being investigated”.
Speaking at a news conference during an official visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Blinken declined to speak to the motive or intent behind the incident, saying he would let the investigation proceed.
He said:
What I can say very clearly is this was a reckless and unsafe action.
Blinken said the US is “in close coordination” with allies and partners on the matter.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said that Russia’s downing of a US military surveillance drone over the Black Sea “is being investigated”. Blinken declined to speak to the motive or intent behind the incident, saying he would let the investigation proceed and that the US is “in close coordination” with allies and partners on the matter. The collision of a Russian fighter jet with a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea was likely an unintentional act from Russia’s side, the US state department’s spokesperson, Ned Price, has said. The US state department has summoned Russia’s ambassador over the drone incident.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, described the drone incident as a “hazardous episode” involving “dangerous and reckless and unprofessional” behaviourby Russian aircraft over the Black Sea. The incident is “part of a pattern of aggressive, risky and unsafe actions” by Russian pilots in international airspace, he said at a news conference on Wednesday, adding that he had “just got off the phone” with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu.
The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, accused Russia of acting “unprofessionally”. Wallace’s comments reflect an emerging western view that the extraordinary mid-air incident was a one-off, not immediately meriting anything stronger than diplomatic complaints.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that relations with the US were in a “lamentable state” and at their lowest levelafter Washington accused Russia of downing one of its reconnaissance drones over the Black Sea.Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said there had been no high-level contact with Washington over the incident.
The Russian ambassador to the US called the drone incident a “provocation”, while Russia’s defence ministry maintained that its fighters “did not use airborne weapons and did not come into contact” with the US drone. Russia’s RIA state news agency cited Anatoly Antonov as saying: “We do not want any confrontation between the United States and Russia. We are in favour of building pragmatic relations.”
Ukrainian ground forces have shot down a Russian fighter jet near the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, a Ukrainian official has said. Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, also said Kyiv’s forces had made gains in northern parts of the city.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenary Wagner group, said Russian forces have taken control of the settlement of Zaliznyanskoye and are expanding the encirclement of Bakhmut. Neither side’s claims of success in what has become the longest-running battle since the war began could be verified.
Vladimir Putin and the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, met today in Moscow.
Russia’s defence ministry will start a new recruitment campaign on 1 April, with the aim of recruiting 400,000 professional soldiers to the Russian army,according to a report. Russian military recruitment offices are trying to compensate for its losses in specialised soldiers, such as tank drivers and artillerymen, according to a separate report.
Finland’s president, Sauli Niinistö, has said he expects his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to tell him whether Turkey is endorsing the Nordic country’s Nato membership application when the two meet in Ankara later this week. The news came as the Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said on a visit to Berlin that he hoped his country’s Nato accession would be ratified by Turkey soon after general elections scheduled for May.
Austin is asked by a reporter to provide more detail about his conversation with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu.
The US secretary of defence says he won’t go into the details of the discussion, but that he will reiterate that the US “will fly and operate wherever international law allows”.
Austin says:
We take any potential for escalation very seriously and that’s why I believe it’s important to keep the lines of communication open.
He says that it is “really key” that both sides can “pick up on the phone and engage with each other” and that he believes it will help to “prevent miscalculation” going forward.
Austin goes on to say that the Ukraine defence contact group has just concluded its tenth “highly successful” meeting.
Kyiv’s allies “all understand that Ukraine’s battle to defend itself from Russian aggression is vital for everyone who values the core principles of sovereignty, self-determination and freedom”, he says.
The group was joined by Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, today who underscored the “continued urgency” of the group’s support, Austin says.
Russia hopes to grind down Ukraine in a war of attrition, but Ukraine has been supplied by more than 40 countries.
Meanwhile, Russia has had to depend on Iran and North Korea [and] has had to use equipment dating back to World War Two. So Russia is running out of capability and running out of friends.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, is speaking at a joint news conference with Gen Mark Milley, chairman of America’s joint chiefs of staff.
Austin describes yesterday’s downing of a US surveillance drone as a “hazardous episode” involving “dangerous and reckless and unprofessional” behaviour by Russian aircraft over the Black Sea.
The incident is “part of a pattern of aggressive, risky and unsafe actions” by Russian pilots in international airspace, he says.
Austin says he “just got off the phone” with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, and that he told him Russia must operate its military aircraft in a “safe and professional” manner.
Blinken says drone incident with Russia ‘is being investigated’
US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said that Russia’s downing of a US military surveillance drone over the Black Sea “is being investigated”.
Speaking at a news conference during an official visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Blinken declined to speak to the motive or intent behind the incident, saying he would let the investigation proceed.
He said:
What I can say very clearly is this was a reckless and unsafe action.
Blinken said the US is “in close coordination” with allies and partners on the matter.
The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, accused Russia of acting “unprofessionally” in an incident that led to the downing of a $32m US Reaper drone in the Black Sea after it was harassed by two Russian fighter jets.
The comments, made while the minister was visiting Japan, reflect an emerging western view that the extraordinary mid-air incident was a one-off, not immediately meriting anything stronger than diplomatic complaints.
Ben Wallace urges Russia to 'respect international airspace' – video
“The Americans have said they think it was very unprofessional,” Wallace said as he was filmed walking around a defence industry conference.
The key here is that all parties respect international airspace; we urge the Russians to do so.
It is common for Russian jets to harass western military planes flying over neutral airspace by flying at an unsafe, close distance, but the presumption is that on this occasion, one of Moscow’s pilots miscalculated – and struck a propeller on the Reaper.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said its staff made “very good progress” in talks with Ukrainian officials on a set of policies that could underpin a new lending programme for Ukraine.
Talks could be finalised in the coming days, Vahram Stepanyan, the IMF resident representative to Ukraine, said. An agreement is expected by the end of the week, Reuters cited two sources as saying.
Ukrainian officials have said they hope to agree a $15bn multi-year programme with the IMF, which would be the country’s largest loan package since Russia’s full-scale invasion over a year ago.
Stepanyan said:
The discussions between IMF staff and the Ukrainian authorities were productive and very good progress has been made towards agreement on a set of policies that could underpin a fund-supported programme.
The package, which would still need to be approved by the IMF’s board, would help unlock lending from other sources. Group of Seven rich countries are expected to provide the financial backing required by the IMF to proceed.
Russian warplane shot down near Bakhmut, says Ukraine
Ukrainian ground forces have shot down a Russian fighter jet near the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, a Ukrainian official has said.
Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, also said Kyiv’s forces had made gains in northern parts of the city.
Meanwhile, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenary Wagner group, said in a social media post today that Russian forces have taken control of the settlement of Zaliznyanskoye and are expanding the encirclement of Bakhmut.
Neither side’s claims of success in what has become the longest-running battle since the war began could be verified.
On Tuesday, Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his military chiefs agreed to keep defending Bakhmut. Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, said the defence of the city was of “paramount strategic importance”.
Zaluzhnyi said:
It is key to the stability of the defence of the entire front.
US: drone incident likely unintentional from Russia
The collision of a Russian fighter jet with a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea was likely an unintentional act from Russia’s side, the US state department’s spokesperson, Ned Price, has said.
Finland’s president, Sauli Niinistö, has said he expects his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to confirm that Turkey is endorsing the Nordic country’s Nato membership application when the two meet in Ankara later this week.
“We knew that when Turkish President Erdoğan on his part has decided to ratify Finland’s Nato membership, he wants to meet and fulfil his promise, president to president,” Niinistö told Reuters in an email on Wednesday.
The news came as the Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said on a visit to Berlin that he hoped his country’s Nato accession would be ratified by Turkey soon after general elections scheduled for May.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, told reporters that the accession of Sweden and Finland to the military alliance was critical “for our security”.
Both countries last year abandoned decades of military non-alignment in a historic policy shift triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, submitting simultaneous Nato applications and pledging to complete the process “hand in hand”.
Russian authorities say they will try to recover the remnants of the US surveillance drone that fell into the Black Sea after an encounter with Russian fighter jets.
Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s security council, said in televised remarks that Russia planned to search for the drone’s debris. He said:
I don’t know if we can recover them or not, but we will certainly have to do that, and we will deal with it. I certainly hope for success.
The German government has called on Russia to extend a deal allowing the export of grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports beyond 60 days.
The deal should continue indefinitely, a German government spokesperson said, after Russia said on Monday that it had agreed to extend the deal but only for another 60 days, drawing an immediate challenge from Kyiv.
Speaking at a regular news conference, the German spokespesrson added that the collision of a Russian fighter jet with a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday is “cause for concern”.
Earlier we reported that the Chinese defence ministry had announced that China, Iran and Russia would conduct joint maritime drills in the Gulf of Oman starting today.
The “Security Bond-2023” exercises will also involve other countries, the ministry said, without giving details.
The drills would “help deepen practical cooperation between the participating countries’ navies … and inject positive energy into regional peace and stability”, a ministry statement said.
The White House was not concerned by the joint training exercise, spokesperson John Kirby said. He told CNN:
We’re going to watch it, we’ll monitor it, obviously, to make sure that there’s no threat resulting from this training exercise to our national security interests or those of our allies and partners in the region. But nations train. We do it all the time. We’ll watch it as best we can.
