Hear what Russia had to explain about US drone that crashed

Now in the last few minutes, the US Secretary of Defense said the downing of a US spy drone in international airspace yesterday was part of a pattern of, quote, aggressive, risky and unsafe actions by Russia.

Lloyd Austin's comments come one day after the Pentagon accused a Russian fighter jet of hitting an American spy drones propeller, forcing it to crash into international waters. But Russia's ambassador to Washington.

Is insisting the incident didn't happen and is warning the US not to enter the airspace as the war rages in Ukraine. This drone can carry a few booms. You'll see that. What will be the issue of the United States?.

If you'll see such a Russian drone, very close, for example, to San Francisco or New York? What will the reaction of the United States? For me, it's clear and some Abdulaziz joins us now on this summer. Perhaps no surprise that there's a difference of opinion over.

What happened here given the broader backdrop. What do we know? Firstly, about what happened? What more happened? What about the data on the drone and the perhaps the communications behind the scenes here to avoid further escalation?.

Absolutely. Two very different narratives coming from Moscow in D.C. The United States says that Russia intentionally hit this drone, struck this drone it says that Russian jets were in the vicinity of it, essentially harassing.

It between reading between the lines for 30 to 40 minutes, dumping fuel on that drone before that Russian fighter jet went behind that drone and clipped its propeller. The drone.

Then that reaper drone being forced to crash to land into not land rather crash into the Black Sea a total loss U.S. officials say. But Moscow says this is simply not true. They deny that there was any physical contact between one of their fighter jets.

And if you ask me, drone Russia says in fact, that it detected an intruder over the Black Sea waters. It scrambled its fighter jets that that drone, the U.S. Army drone, did not have its transponders on which Russia says is a violation of international standards and norms.

In fact, Russia says it had warned that it was operating in the air, that it was carrying out its special military operations in that Black Sea area and had warned about that action and in fact, blames the United States.

Pointing fingers at the US, says it's America that was behaving recklessly, dangerously in the Black Sea. One Kremlin spokesman saying that relationships between Russia and the United States are deplorable now that they're at an all time low.

Now, one positive sign is that both sides seem to agree that this should not escalate any further. Russia's ambassador to D.C. to the United States was summoned. There was about a 30 minute meeting there in the State Department. He called it constructive.

So for now, it seems that neither party wants to see this escalate. But all eyes on the Black Sea as to whether or not the Americans can somehow. And it's impossible to imagine that this could take place, could somehow get the remnants.

Of that drone from the Black Sea. But important to note, of course, Russia very much operates in that flashpoint area of the Black Sea. Some.Abdulaziz, thank you for joining us. Colin Edwards at the State Department. Ivan Watson is in eastern Ukraine. And you're there monitoring not just what's going on the ground,.

But the response on this incident from the Kremlin. What's been said Well, we've seen the first official response from the Ukrainian government to this incident in the Black Sea, and not much of a surprise given how.

Closely allied Kiev and Washington are. The head of the National Security and Defense Council has called Russia's alleged downing of this American Air Force drone a provocation and said that this indicates Putin's readiness to expand the conflict zone.

With the involvement of other parties. So we're standing very much behind the U.S. on this. Again, not much of a surprise. The Russians have claimed that no weapons were used to force down this U.S. Air Force Reaper and that there was no conflict tact.

Between the Russian fighter jets and the drone itself, which is something that the Pentagon is disputing. Now, I want to turn your attention, Becky, to another incident that took place just to show you.

How frequent these types of aerial intercepts are. This is over Estonia where a British and German warplane were scrambled to intercept and then escort a Russian military plane over Estonia after the. The Royal Air Force says that the Russian.

Plane did not respond to air traffic control. This is apparently a Russian refueling plane that was flying between the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad and St Petersburg. There were no collisions here. This is a standard practice.

That we see practiced around the world. But something went very wrong in the Black Sea and had raised tensions there Becky. Well, Ivan, thank you. Let's get to the State Department then. What do we understand happened? Well, listen, what U.S. officials are saying.

Is that, first of all, there were two Russian aircraft that poured fuel onto this drone, and then that there was one of the Russian aircrafts aircraft who actually intercepted the U.S. drone. And that's what led to it going down.

So they're being pretty clear in saying that this was a very risky and very aggressive action by Russia. Now, one interesting thing that we learned this morning from John Kirby from the National Security Council.

At the White House is thatthere is some footage of this incident actually occurring. The Pentagon has that footage. We're waiting to see if the Biden administration decides to make that footage public, because that could provide a very clear accounting.

Potentially of what actually went down. And what we also heard from Kirby this morning was that what the US has done is take steps to make sure that any of the information that are on that drone is protected. They can obviously do that remotely.

Because it's a drone that's remotely operated. But what he also said is that they're not sure if they're actually going to be able to recover this drone because it's just so far in the depths of the Black Sea right now. So that is a point for us to also watch.

We heard from the secretary of defense this morning, Lloyd Austin, who talked about the incident and how it's not going to prevent the U.S. from flying these drones in international airspace is going forth. Listen to what he said. I know.

That everyone here has heard that Russian aircraft, again engaged in dangerous, reckless and unprofessional practices on Tuesday in international airspace over the Black Sea. Two Russian jets dumped fuel on an unmanned U.S.

MQ nine aircraft conducting routine operations in international airspace. And one Russian jet intercepted and hit our MQ nine aircraft resulting in a crash. This hazardous episode is a part of a pattern of aggressive.

And risky and unsafe actions by Russian pilots in international airspace. So make no mistake, the United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows. And it is incumbent upon Russia to operate its military aircraft.

In a safe and professional manner. Now, what we've also heard from U.S. officials is that incidents like this increase the risk of miscount dilation. And the concern here is that there could be more confrontation between the US and Russia.

Beyond this, of course, the Ukraine war. But between the two nations directly and that is the concern here. What we're waiting to see is the full extent of the U.S. response. Obviously, we have seen them condemning what happened. Condemning Russia's aggression. But we're waiting to see.

If there's more to come from the Biden administration. And on the part of the Kremlin, the spokesperson is saying, and I quote, The US and Russia relations are in a, quote, deplorable state and at their lowest point. Another quote, adding that.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was briefed on the incident. Always a pleasure. Thank you very much indeed.

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