welcome to bbc news. our top story today: the us defense secretary says he had a rare phone call with his russian counterpart in the aftermath of a collision between a russian fighterjet and a us drone. the race is now on to recover the wreckage of the drone which is thought to be twelve hundred metres deep in the black sea. russia has also said it will try to find the wreckage. meanwhile, america s top general said the whole incident was a result of russia s increasingly aggressive behaviour in the area. us defense secretary lloyd austin gave this update earlier. as i ve said repeatedly, it s important that great powers be models of transparency and communication. and the united states will continue to fly into operate where ever international law allows. and it is incumbent upon russia to operate its military aircraft in a safe and professional manner. ukraine s foreign told the bbc that incidents such as this are inevitable until russia leaves crimea. our diplomatic corr
aircraft in a safe and professional manner. ukraine s foreign told the bbc that incidents such as this are inevitable until russia leaves crimea. our diplomatic correspondent, james landale now reports from kyiv. this is the kind of unmanned aircraft that crashed. an mq nine reaper patrolling the skies. patrolling the skies over the black sea. gathering information over the war below flown will remotely. this is the type of russian warplane the us claims struck the drone an su 27 fighterjet which encountered the aircraft yesterday. us commanders said the russian planes flew in front of the drones several times and dumped fuel over it. after which, the drone s propeller was struck, spinning it out of control. but russia denies
causing the crash. sing the drum was approaching russian territory to do with the spokesman referred to as sharp manoeuvres. translation: | want to - underline russian fighterjets did not use the onboard weapons, did not come into contact with the unmanned aerial vehicle and returned safely to base. ukraine s foreign minister played down the risk of an escalating cofrontation between two of the world s nuclear superpowers. as long as russia controls crimea, this kind of incident will be inevitable, and the black sea will not be a safe place. the only way to prevent such incidents is actually to kick russia out of crimea. do you fear escalation? no, i think it sjust routine incidents. it s happening from time to time. a us spokesman said steps are being taken to protect
leaves crimea. who do you believe, mr. ambassador? i think the administration is still working out what its policy towards russia is going to be. you re seeing these contradictions, comments by the president, who for example remains reluctant to criticize the kremlin or russian actions, where is people like ambassador haley, the vice president, who are much more forthright in condemning russia s actions. i m not sure yet we have a good fix on that. as you mentioned, kind of those comments we ve been talking about throughout the show from president trump about the russian president vladimir putin just yesterday, if you re in your old post, what impact do these mixed messages have on your job? well, i think certainly in kiev there s a degree of nervousness about american policy. under the obama administration there was a fairly strong degree of support for ukraine. in kiev they ve watched what mr.
look, you may want to send a message. you may want to say to australia, we re not going to accept these refugees. we have a little bit of a different idea than the obama administration. but to attack over the phone in your first conversation is probably not the best way to get business done. and corker was saying, look, donald trump is a businessman. he s use this is the way he s used to dealing with people. but when you re president of the united states, maybe you need to kind of think the way you deal with other foreign leaders. especially a close ally like the prime minister. with whom you share intelligence. very close relationship as phil can testify. mark preston, some mixed messages coming out as far as russia is concerned, very tough statement from the u.s. ambassador to the u.n., nikki haley at the u.n. security council, sanctions will remain in effect until russia leaves crimea. they show no intention of leaving crimea. at the same time the treasury