US military drone flights in the Black Sea increase “the risk of direct confrontation” between Russia and NATO, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday. “These flights increase the likelihood of incidents in the airspace with aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces,” the ministry said in a statement.
In the event of a confrontation, “NATO countries would be responsible,” he warned. According to the Russian ministry, these American drones are used “for reconnaissance and target designation for precision weapons supplied to the Ukrainian armed forces” by the West.
VideoPutin warns against use of Western weapons on Russian soil
In recent weeks, Moscow has accused the West of becoming a party to the conflict in Ukraine by authorizing kyiv to strike, under conditions, with Western weapons, military sites on Russian territory used to attack Ukrainian territory. The Americans and Europeans have long been reluctant to do so, for fear of provoking an escalation.
Threats of retaliation
Russia has already threatened the United States with retaliation on June 24, accusing it of “killing Russian children”, the day after a Ukrainian strike in Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014. Because, according to the Kremlin, long-range ATACMS missile strikes cannot be carried out by Ukraine alone, as they require specialists, technologies and intelligence collected by the Americans.
Referring to reprisals, Russian President Vladimir Putin had already threatened in early June to deliver equivalent weapons to enemies of the West so that they could attack their interests in other regions of the world.
The Black Sea has been a hotly contested area between Ukrainians and Russians since the start of the conflict in 2022. While the Russian fleet has numerical superiority there, it has lost many ships, targeted by multiple attacks by naval explosive drones successfully launched by kyiv.
With these strikes, the Ukrainian army repelled Russian warships and established a sea corridor in the area to export its grain.
