hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. you are watching cnn newsroom, and i m rosemary church. just ahead, russian warplanes accused of taking down the u.s. drone over the black sea. u.s. officials say it was reckless and unprofessional. we ll look at how moscow is responding ahead. and we re tracking two major coastal storms in the u.s. more flooding in california and a nor easter dumping snow on the east coast. plus, u.s. stocks appear to rebound following the collapse of silicon valley bank. this as federal authorities launch investigations into the bank s failure. live from cnn center, this cnn newsroom. with rosemary church. good to have you with us. well, russia is disputing a u.s. claim that one of its fighter jets hit a u.s. drone, forcing
there, but we will continue to exercise our rights in international air space. let s go to dan, washington post. reporter: gentlemen, thank you for your time today. secretary austin, announced presidential candidates have already said that ukraine should not be a priority, given that the biden administration has promised to support ukraine for as long as it takes, are you concerned that election rhetoric could undermine support for ukraine in congress or with the american people? and then, chairman milley, the mq-9 came down in the black sea where the united states has not had any military vessels for more than a year. is it fair to say that the u.s. will not recover this mq-9 and do you have any concerns about what value it might have to russia either strategically or for propaganda? thank you.
chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general mark milley. the secretary and the chairman will each deliver opening remarks and then have time to take a few questions. please note, i will moderate those questions and call on journalists and would ask you that you limit your follow-ups due to our tight schedule today. i appreciate your assistance with this. secretary austin, over to you, sir. thanks, pat. good afternoon, everybody. we just concluded our tenth highly successful meeting of ukraine defense contact group, but before i get to that important work, i want to say just a few words about a troubling episode yesterday. on tuesday russian aircraft, again, engaged in dangerous and reckless and unprofessional behavior in the international air space over the black sea. two russian jets dumped fuel on an unmanned u.s. mq-9 aircraft conducting routine operations in international air space. one russian jet struck our mq-9
reaction to the chinese surveillance balloon, bianna, and victor, and, in fact, some senior u.s. military officials commented afterwards that part of china s sort of mow does op ran dee in that whole event was to cede those certainly disagreements as it often does because that s to their benefit. when you hear the public comments from various prominent u.s. officials and some on opposing sides of this, those are things that russia and china are happy to see and attempt to profit from. the u.s. has flown reaper drones in the black sea area before russia invaded ukraine last year and the united states in response says they will continue to do so. jim sciutto and steve hall, stand by as we are awaiting this press conference at the pentagon from defense secretary lloyd austin and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff mark milley as well. and we re going to move on now to other news of the day. any moment we will bring you that news conference. we re going to take a quick break, though,
u.s. and russia. reporter: an expected call. we are waiting to find out if it happens. this would be between the top russian general and his counterpart. that would be mark milley. they haven t spoken all that often, in fact, according to the readouts the last time they spoke was three months ago in december but they have spoken at critical moments. this would certainly be one of those critical moments, just one day after the two russian jets essentially harassed, intercepted and collided with the mq-9 reaper drone over international air space over the black sea. we will wait to find out if and when this happens. it is worth noting that occasionally or frequently i should say these calls happen in tandem between a call between defense secretary lloyd austin and his russian counterpart, sergei show gu. we will see if they learn more about the expected calls or call