Reprinted from Sara Carter's news page.
Russian pilots taunted the United States Tuesday, through acts of reckless aerial maneuvers which included, flybys in front of our MQ-9 Reaper drone, dumping gasoline on our drone and eventually downing the drone in the Black Sea.
The cost of the reaper comes in roughly at 32 million U.S. dollars. According to U.S. officials the reaper was conducting its routine flight schedule when the Russians intercepted it. Reports from the State Department said that the drone was flying over international water’s but Russian officials have claimed the contrary.
Russian officials have repudiated all responsibility for the downing of the reaper, Wednesday, and have announced that there are operations underway to salvage the debris of the drone.
John Kirby, the National security council coordinator for strategic communications, stated on CNN that the U.S. Military is in the process of “protecting our equities” and they do not want anyone else “getting their hands on the drone.”
According to reports from Fox News, Kirby said, “Without getting to too much detail, what I can say is that we’ve taken steps to protect our equities with respect to that particular drone, that particular aircraft and its United States property,” he continued “We obviously don’t want to see anybody getting their hands on it beyond us.”
The USAF (United States Air Force) issued a statement after the incident occurred Tuesday accusing the Russian aircraft of acting in a, “reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner.” Donald Trump Jr. commented on the statement on twitter saying, “Environmentally unsound. That’s what they’re worried about. Not the start of WWIII. Trump was right again!”
The US Air Force issued a statement accusing the Russian aircraft of acting in a “reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner.”
Environmentally unsound. That’s what they’re worried about. Not the start of WWIII.
Trump was right again!
https://t.co/LxJAP5JgbM— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 14, 2023
Could this be the potential start to WWIII?
Ukrainian officials believe that the downing of the drone is an attempt to escalate the United State’s involvement in the ongoing war.
National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said, “The incident with the American MQ-9 Reaper UAV — provoked by Russia over the Black Sea — is Putin’s way of signaling his readiness to expand the conflict to involve other parties,” he continued, “The purpose of this all-in tactic is to always be raising the stakes.”
We will continue to follow the story and keep you updated.
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NOTE: The opinions expressed in the Sara Carter posts are not necessarily (but probably pretty much) the opinions of Cogny Mann.
I don't necessarily endorse all content from this site but it's always good to get different perspectives. https://saraacarter.com/russia-and-the-us-race-to-recover-the-reaper-drone/