Russia says it downed Ukrainian aircraft-type drone over Black Sea

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) – Russia said on Tuesday that it downed a Ukrainian drone intending to conduct a “terrorist attack” over the Black Sea.

“Today, at around 12:00, an attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack with one aircraft-type UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) on objects in the territory of the Russian Federation was thwarted,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It further said that the drone was destroyed by a naval aircraft.

A day earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said that it prevented US drones from conducting aerial reconnaissance over the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.

It claimed that the “MQ-9 Reaper” and “RQ-4 Global Hawk” drones were detected over the southwestern part of the Black Sea, after which two Russian fighter jets scrambled to “prevent a possible violation of the state border of the Russian Federation.”

“As a result of the actions of the on-duty air defense forces, reconnaissance UAVs of the US Air Force changed their flight direction and left the areas where air reconnaissance was being conducted,” it added.

Neither Ukrainian nor US authorities have yet commented on the claims, and independent verification of Russia's claims is difficult due to the ongoing war.