The media is stuck on the drone story…..
The side story is the action in the Black Sea where Russian warships send rockets on their way into the Ukraine and where the Ukranie ships grain for export….
The drone incident shed a small light on the US/NATO intelligence gathering effort’s for the Ukraine and how a game of ‘chicken ‘ comes with it while President Biden tries hard not have the US engaging with Russian military units….The drone flight are sure to continue….
Top US Defense officals have spoken to their Russian counterparts over the last 48 hours about the drone incident…..
The US/NATO hasa been pushed hard by the Ukraine to speed up delievery of more modern weapons systems for their propsed Spring Offensive against the Russian’s to take back territory …
The fight for Bakhmut continues…..
Republican lawmakers have come down hard against Ron Desantis wanting to walk away from helping the Ukraine againast Russia…..
The downing of an American surveillance drone after it was struck by a Russian warplane was the first known physical contact between the two militaries since the war in Ukraine began. Here’s what we are covering:
-
Pentagon chief says he spoke to his Russian counterpart about the drone incident.
-
In describing the drone incident, U.S. officials stick to specific language.
-
Russia seeks to retrieve drone wreckage.
-
Assad offers Putin Syria’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
-
Here is what is known so far about the downed American drone.
-
Ukraine says the U.S. drone posed no threat to Russia.
-
As Ukraine prepares for a counteroffensive, allies vow to provide weapons ‘fully and quickly’…..
…
“The United States will fly and operate wherever international law allows,” Austin said at a news conference Wednesday. He was flanked by top U.S. general, Mark Milley, who said it wasn’t yet clear if the Russian pilot deliberately struck the drone.
“We know that the intercept was intentional. We know that the aggressive behavior was intentional,” Milley said. “We also know it was very unprofessional and very unsafe.”
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
- The incident began early Tuesday morning when two Russian fighter jets approached the drone, which had been launched from Romania by U.S. personnel stationed there, according to U.S. officials. After repeatedly dumping fuel on the U.S. aircraft, one of the jets collided with the propeller on the rear of the drone, officials said.
- Moscow says that its aircraft did not come into direct contact with the drone. The two Russian fighter jets insteadsought to identify the unmanned aerial vehicle as it approached the Russian Federation, after which it “made a sharp U-turn and crashed,” Russia’s ambassador to the United States said in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV.
- Russia will try to retrieve the wreckage of the drone, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev told Russian media Wednesday. According to a U.S. defense official, military operators took steps to wipe its electronics in hopes of rendering the wreckage useless for intelligence collection. “We are quite confident that whatever was of value is no longer of value,” Milley said, adding that the U.S. military knew where the debris was in the Black Sea. “We know where it landed.”
- Shoigu and Austin discussed the drone incident, which Moscow said was a result of U.S. actions in a restricted flight zone near Crimea, according to a statement Wednesday from the Russian Defense Ministry. The statement said that U.S. drone flights in the area were “provocative in nature” and that the two nuclear powers “should act as responsibly as possible,” including by maintaining open channels of communication between the Russian and U.S. militaries.
- Milley also spoke with Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, and discussed “several security-related issues of concern,” the Pentagon said in a statement. Milley said earlier that he was not sure whether the collision was intentional, but said it was clear that Russian pilots had committed a number of recent aggressive acts against American and allied aircraft. “There is a pattern of behavior going on here, and we have to figure out exactly what the way ahead is,” he said, adding that doing so was “one of the fundamental reasons for my call to General Gerasimov.”….