Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed that Moscow is not seeking a confrontation with the United States following the drone incident.
“We believe it is important to keep lines of communication open,” Zakharova said at a press conference in Moscow on Thursday, commenting on the US drone incident.
She also added: “We do not seek confrontation, but we advocate pragmatic cooperation for the benefit of the people in our two countries, and we know how to protect these interests,” local media reported.
Post a video
Notably, despite Russia’s repeated denials over the past two days of the downing of an American drone over the Black Sea, the US released a video clip showing the moment a Russian Su-27 intercepted an American MQ-9 Reaper, harassing it unprofessionally, and then, after destroying her helicopter, fall into the water.
Earlier Thursday, US European Command released declassified footage on its Twitter account of “a Su-27 aircraft intercepting a US Air Force march in international airspace over the Black Sea on the fourteenth of the month in an unsafe and unprofessional manner.” “Current (March 2023),” it said in a statement it released.
The strongest friction in the atmosphere
Also refuted were those moments in the video that recorded the worst Russian-American friction in the air since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war in February last year. She explained that at the beginning of the video, the Russian aircraft approached the back of the drone and then began releasing fuel as it passed.
Sukhoi later hovered over the MQ-9, momentarily disabling its visualization function while the flight could be seen undamaged.
Sukhoi then returned later in a second maneuver and began to approach the drone, burning fuel to collide with it, turning off the imaging function for about 60 seconds. Later, the MQ-9’s camera started working again, showing the damage to the helicopter, which, of course, was followed by its crash into the sea.
She collapsed alone and fell
Notably, Moscow has previously denied dropping this march, noting that it collapsed alone and fell into the Black Sea.
And on March 14, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that surveillance equipment had spotted an American MQ-9 drone near Crimea, believing that it “violated the zone of the regime for the temporary use of airspace.”
It was also indicated then that the march was carried out without the inclusion of transceivers “in violation of the boundaries of the temporary use zone, which were introduced against the backdrop of a special operation,” referring to the war in Ukraine.
Notably, this “friction” that has been contained so far is a dangerous manifestation of the escalation of conflict and tension between Moscow and Western countries, especially the United States, since February 24, 2022.
