US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said he has spoken to his Russian counterpart following the downing of a US drone over the Black Sea, which Washington has blamed on Moscow.
Austin told reporters he spoke with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday but declined to provide additional details about their conversation.
The rare high-level talks come a day after US officials said a Russian jet made contact with a US MQ-9 Reaper drone, forcing it to be shot down. Moscow has denied any collision.
The incident is said to be the first time US and Russian military assets have made contact since the war in Ukraine began in February last year, and has fueled concerns about a possible escalation between the two countries.
But Austin expressed restraint at a Pentagon press conference, saying the US “takes any potential for escalation very seriously and that’s why I think it’s important to keep the lines of communication open.”
“As I have said repeatedly, it is important that great powers be models of transparency and communication, and that the United States will continue to fly and operate where international law allows,” Austin said.
“It is Russia’s duty to operate its military aircraft in a safe and professional manner.”
Contact between top US and Russian defense officials has been relatively infrequent since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Austin and Shoigu first spoke about the Russian offensive in May last year, and in October they spoke twice in three days citing a heightened threat of an escalation of the conflict.
On Wednesday, Austin repeated the US version of what happened over the Black Sea this week, saying a Russian fighter jet had intercepted the US drone in international airspace.
“This dangerous episode is part of a pattern of aggressive, high-risk and unsafe actions by Russian pilots in international airspace,” Austin said at a news conference alongside US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley.
The US officials also said the Russian plane dumped fuel on the $30 million drone before the collision.
Milley said there were still questions about Russia wanting to shoot down the drone, even though the moments leading up to the crash were “intentional.”
“We know the interception was intentional. We know the aggressive behavior was intentional,” he told reporters.
“You’ve heard about dumping fuel and everything else. We have video evidence of all that, so there’s no question that part is intentional,” he said. “The actual physical contact of the plane – I’m not so sure. So we will have to find out.”
Milley added recovery was hampered by the fact that the drone crashed in 1,219 to 1,524 meters (4,000 to 5,000 feet) of water, but said the US had already taken steps to avoid losing sensitive information if the drone would be destroyed. recovered by Russia.
“We are pretty sure that everything that was of value is no longer of value,” he said.
Milley added that he planned to talk about the incident with his Russian counterpart, Valery Gerasimov, the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
Russia has maintained that while its fighter jets intercepted the drone, no contact was made and instead the US plane crashed during a “sharp maneuver”.
It has also said the drone entered an area declared off limits by Russian authorities. Russia has declared vast areas near Crimea prohibited from flights.
The US does not recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea after its invasion of the area in 2014.
After being summoned by the US State Department over the incident, Russia’s ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said he had told US officials that Russia “would no longer allow anyone to violate our waters,” it reported. news agency TASS.
Antonov said the drone was “deliberately and provocatively heading into Russian territory with transponders disabled”.
He said his meeting at the State Department was constructive and did not raise the issue of possible consequences for Moscow from the incident, the state news agency RIA reported on Wednesday.
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