US Senator proposes shooting down Russian fighters and Moscow responds

After the incident that occurred with a US drone in the Black Sea, the Russian ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, stressed that “not the Russian pilots must be held responsible, but the American politicians who instigate the start of an apocalyptic conflict.

The diplomat thus commented on the statements of Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham, who stated in an interview with Fox News that Russian planes must be shot down in international airspace if they approach US military aircraft. “A deliberate attack to a Russian plane in neutral airspace is not only a crime under international law, but an open declaration of war on a great nuclear power,” he warned.

According to Antonov, “an armed confrontation between Russia and the United States would be radically different from the proxy war” that Washington is carrying out in Ukraine. “Is Capitol Hill willing to put American citizens and the international community at risk of a full-scale nuclear war?” he asked.

Furthermore, Antonov stressed that the Russian fighters “did not come into contact with the US unmanned aerial vehicle.” and that “Russia did everything possible to avoid this type of incident: it informed the international community in advance about the limits of the zone of temporary use of airspace established for the purpose of carrying out the special military operation.”

“In this case, accusations of unprofessionalism on the part of the US military should be directed at itself,” he said.

For his part, Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, Dmitri Polianski, described the incursion of the US MQ-9 Reaper combat and surveillance drone into Black Sea airspace as a “deliberate and very dangerous provocation.” . «The drone was violating the limits of the temporal regime of airspace and the US knew those limits well. “I think it is part of the conflict prevention agreements that are usually agreed upon between great powers in this type of situation,” he said in an interview with journalist Kim Iversen.

In this context, Anatoly Antonov stressed that Moscow does not seek “a conflict with a nuclear power.” «We continue to maintain contacts, including through the Ministry of Defense, to avoid inadvertent collisions. “I would like American politicians to have the same attitude towards relations with Russia,” he concluded.

On Tuesday morning, a US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper combat, surveillance and reconnaissance drone violated temporary restrictions imposed on the use of airspace over the Black Sea.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the drone was heading towards Russian airspace with its transponders turned off and lost control after making a sharp maneuver, losing altitude and crashing into the water. The Russian Su-27 fighters that took off after detecting the aircraft did not make contact with the drone and did not use their respective equipment, the agency clarified.
The MQ-9A Reapers have a wingspan of 20 meters and can remain in the air for more than 24 hours. These drones, with a payload capacity of about 1,740 kilograms, are mainly used to carry out intelligence and reconnaissance tasks, although they also have the capacity to carry weapons. With RT

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