Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke by phone Wednesday amid mounting tensions over the loss of a U.S. surveillance drone in the Black Sea. U.S. officials said the MQ-9 drone was forced down Tuesday morning local time after colliding with a Russian fighter jet that repeatedly dumped fuel on the aircraft.
“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.
But his passion has put him in a precarious position, Robyn Dixon reports. An intimidating transcript of his private phone conversations was delivered to him — via messages on his YouTube page — in what Korotkov interpreted as a threat from the Kremlin.
Afraid for his safety, Korotkov has fled Russia. “The hardest thing was to finally realize that emigration was the only solution, and to give up my past life and start from zero,” he said.
Natalia Abbakumova, Karen DeYoung and Dan Lamothe contributed to this report.
