war, the u.s. and russia have had confrontations at air and sea. these incounters have only rarely blown up into serious incidents. that s because at least to some extent there are routines that are followed, less so for russia, everyone involved acts professionally. that was not the case today. an american reaper drone was intercepted by two russian fighters. it was damaged and then forced down. somebody could have gotten hurt. nobody wants to see that happen. and it could lead to miscalculations between two militaries that are operating not obviously in ukraine together, but certainly in proximity in the region. we don t want to see this war escalate beyond what it has already done to the ukrainian people, so this is clearly, this was inappropriate, unsafe, unprofessional conduct by the russian pilots. russia s ambassador to washington was summoned to the state department. we ll also get perspective from mark hertling, but oren liebermann joins us from the pentagon. r
The photographs of the unmanned aerial vehicles were presented at the Weaponry Exhibition-2023 in Pyongyang attended by Sergei Shoigu and Kim Jong-un within the framework of the Russian Defense Minister’s visit to North Korea.
own drone. it is worth noting that john kirby told earlier today jake tapper that the u.s. has taken steps to protect its own equities. now, what exactly that means is unclear, whether that s some sort of self destruct or other step to make sure that this couldn t and didn t fall into russian hands. so do we know, has the drone been recovered? is that something they would try to do? it has not been. the u.s. has no naval assets in the black sea, nor has it had naval assets in the black sea for quite some time. so any sort of recovery effort would be incredibly difficult. now, it is worth noting, and this is an interesting step here, an interesting graphic if we can pull this up. the u.s. has repeatedly carried out missions, surveillance missions over the black sea, over the course of the past year. this is an example of that. this is just yesterday, a different kind of drone, an rq-4 global hawk flying repeatedly back and forth over the black sea. the thicker that line gets, the th