• Russian fighter plane collided with a US drone.
• The drone was on a regular mission in international airspace
• The US summoned the Russian ambassador to Washington.

According to the American military, a Russian fighter plane collided with a US drone, leading the unmanned US aircraft to crash into the Black Sea.

The event shows the growing danger of a direct confrontation between Russia and the United States over the Ukraine conflict.

According to the US, the drone was on a regular mission in international airspace when two Russian fighter jets attempted to intercept it.

Russia said the drone crashed after a “sharp maneuver,” but denied that the two planes collided.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the MQ-9 Reaper drone was also flying with its transponders turned off. Transponders are communication devices that enable airplane tracking.

Reaper drones are surveillance aircraft with a wingspan of 20m (66ft).

According to the US military, the event occurred on Tuesday at about 07:03 Central European Time (06:03 GMT).

“Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9,” the statement said.

Several times before the collision the Su-27 fighter jets dumped fuel on the drone in a “reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner”, it said.

The US summoned the Russian ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, to protest against the measure.

Following the discussion, Russian official media paraphrased Antonov as claiming that the drone incident was a “provocation” for Moscow.

After Russia’s takeover of Crimea in 2014, tensions have increased over the Black Sea.

With Russia’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine, the United States and the United Kingdom have increased reconnaissance and surveillance planes, always flying in international airspace.

The important question is whether Russia’s interaction on Tuesday was an attempt to interrupt the American drone’s work or a planned attempt to bring it down.

According to the US, there has been a “pattern of dangerous actions by Russian pilots” in the region while interacting with allied aircraft.

So it’s possible that a Russian pilot got too close to the drone when they “buzzed” it. Nevertheless, if this was a premeditated attack on an American aircraft by a Russian warplane, it would be a massive provocation and a significant escalation.

In such a situation, the strike would be interpreted as an attempt by the Kremlin to put the US response to the test.

Western allies have worked hard to prevent the Ukrainian conflict from turning into a direct confrontation with Russia. But that is all that happened over the Black Sea. The United States must now assess its response.

As US military chiefs cautioned in their statement, this was a dangerous conduct that “could lead to miscalculation and unintended escalation”.

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