An MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) pictured at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada. A Reaper drone was was forced down in international waters by a Russian fighter jet over the Black Sea. Photo / Getty Images
An MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) pictured at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada. A Reaper drone was was forced down in international waters by a Russian fighter jet over the Black Sea. Photo / Getty Images
A Russian fighter jet struck the propeller of a US surveillance drone over the Black Sea, causing American forces to bring down the unmanned aerial vehicle in international waters, the US military said, an incident that highlighted soaring US-Russian tensions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The US European Command said that two Russian Su-27 fighter jets “conducted an unsafe and unprofessional intercept” of a US MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) that was operating within international airspace over the Black Sea.
It said one of the Russian fighters “struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing US forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters”, adding that several times before the collision, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in “a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner”.
“This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional,” it added.
The incident comes amid soaring Russian-US tensions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
A Russian delegation at talks with senior UN officials said Moscow is ready to accept an extension to a grain export deal that has helped bring down global food prices amid the war in Ukraine — but only for 60 days as the Kremlin holds out for changes to how the arrangement is working.
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin (right), leaves the UN building after a meeting with officials for talks on Black Sea Grain Initiative. Photo / AP
The United Nations said it “notes” the Russian announcement and reaffirmed its support for the agreement struck in July as “part of the global response to the most severe cost-of-living crisis in a generation”.
The UN and Turkey brokered the deal between the warring countries that allows Ukraine — one of the world’s key breadbaskets — to ship food and fertiliser from three of its Black Sea ports.
The 120-day agreement was renewed last November. That extension expires on Saturday, and another 120-day extension was on the table.
Ukraine charged that the Russian proposal to extend it only for 60 days goes against the deal, although the language of the agreement allows the parties to roll it over or “modify” it — as Russia did on Monday.
Meanwhile, a Russian missile struck an apartment building in the centre of Kramatorsk, killing at least one person and wounding nine others in one of Ukraine’s major city strongholds in its eastern Donetsk region as it fights against Moscow’s invasion, officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video showing gaping holes in the façade of the low-rise building that bore the brunt of the strike.
The Ukrainian general prosecutor’s office and regional Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko also reported on the attack, posting photos of the building with mounds of rubble in front of it. The impact damaged nine apartment blocks, a kindergarten, a local bank branch, and two cars, Kyrylenko said.
The war, which erupted after Russia’s launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, has brought heavy civilian casualties. The victims were among at least seven civilians killed and 30 wounded in 24 hours, Ukraine authorities said.
They included a 55-year-old woman killed when a Russian shell hit her car Tuesday in a border town in northeastern Ukraine.
“Russian troops are striking residential buildings, schools and hospitals, leaving cities on fire and in ruins,” Kyrylenko, the regional governor, said on Ukrainian television. “The Russians mark each metre of their advance in the region not only with their own blood, but also with the [lost] lives of civilians.”
Kramatorsk houses the local Ukrainian army headquarters. Ukrainian authorities say it has been regularly targeted by Russian shelling and other attacks in the past.
A missile strike on the city’s train station last April, which Kyiv and much of the international community blamed on Moscow, killed dozens of people and wounded more than 100.
A view of four Russian fighter jets violating the airspace east of Gotland, Sweden. Photo / AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking during a meeting with workers at a helicopter factory in southern Siberia, once again cast the conflict in Ukraine as an existential one for Russia, charging that unlike the West — which, he said, is seeking to advance its geopolitical clout — it’s fighting for its existence as a state.
“For us, it’s not a geopolitical task,” Putin said, “it’s the task of survival of Russian statehood and the creation of conditions for the future development of our country.”
Ukrainian forces have also dug in, especially in the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut where Kyiv’s troops have been fending off Russian attacks for seven months and which has become a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance, as well as a focal point of the war.
Zelenskyy discussed the situation in Bakhmut with the top military brass and they were unanimous in their determination to face down the Russian onslaught, according to the presidential office.
“The defensive operation in [Bakhmut] is of paramount strategic importance to deterring the enemy. It is key for the stability of the defence of the entire frontline,” Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said.
Putin emphasised that his country’s industries have survived the blow of Western sanctions. But he acknowledged those sanctions could bring longer-term problems for the Russian economy.
Russia had welcomed a Chinese peace proposal to end the fighting, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Kyiv’s refusal to have talks leaves Moscow with only military options.
Beijing has said it has a “no limits friendship” with Russia and has refused to criticise Moscow’s invasion, or even refer to it as an invasion.
According to U.S. European Command, early this morning a Russian Su-27 conducted an Interception of a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper on Mission over the Black Sea, at some point the Russian Aircraft collided with the Drone causing the Drone to Crash into the Black Sea. pic.twitter.com/knexGGGr7i
“We must achieve our goals,” Peskov told reporters. “Given the current stance of the Kyiv regime, now it’s only possible by military means.”
However, Moscow’s pursuit of its goals in Ukraine has been slowed by poor war management and short resources after being beaten back at the end of last year in a Ukrainian counteroffensive, military analysts say.
The UK Ministry of Defense said Tuesday that Russia’s artillery ammunition shortages “have likely worsened to the extent that extremely punitive shell-rationing is in force on many parts of the front”.
That shortcoming, it said, has “almost certainly been a key reason why no Russian formation has recently been able to generate operationally significant offensive action”.
— The Russian parliament’s lower house on Tuesday gave final endorsement to a bill that extends punishment for showing disrespect toward participants in the “special military operation,” which is how the Kremlin officially describes its war in Ukraine. The change makes it punishable to spread allegedly fake information not only about the military, but also members of volunteer units, in an apparent reference to the Wagner Group military contractor. Those convicted of spreading such information face a prison term of up to 15 years. The bill is set to be approved by the upper house before President Vladimir Putin signs it into law.
— Iceland’s prime minister, Katrin Jakobsdottir, made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Tuesday. She laid flowers at a ceremony for Ukrainian volunteers who have been killed in fighting since 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and Russia-backed separatists started an insurgency in the eastern Donbas region. Jakobsdottir was expected to meet Zelenskyy during her visit.
