Closing summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said that Russia’s downing of a US military surveillance drone over the Black Sea “is being investigated”. Blinken declined to speak to the motive or intent behind the incident, saying he would let the investigation proceed and that the US is “in close coordination” with allies and partners on the matter. The collision of a Russian fighter jet with a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea was likely an unintentional act from Russia’s side, the US state department’s spokesperson, Ned Price, has said. The US state department has summoned Russia’s ambassador over the drone incident.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, described the drone incident as a “hazardous episode” involving “dangerous and reckless and unprofessional” behaviour by Russian aircraft over the Black Sea. The incident is “part of a pattern of aggressive, risky and unsafe actions” by Russian pilots in international airspace, he said at a news conference on Wednesday, adding that he had “just got off the phone” with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu.
The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, accused Russia of acting “unprofessionally”. Wallace’s comments reflect an emerging western view that the extraordinary mid-air incident was a one-off, not immediately meriting anything stronger than diplomatic complaints.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that relations with the US were in a “lamentable state” and at their lowest level after Washington accused Russia of downing one of its reconnaissance drones over the Black Sea. Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said there had been no high-level contact with Washington over the incident.
The Russian ambassador to the US called the drone incident a “provocation”, while Russia’s defence ministry maintained that its fighters “did not use airborne weapons and did not come into contact” with the US drone. Russia’s RIA state news agency cited Anatoly Antonov as saying: “We do not want any confrontation between the United States and Russia. We are in favour of building pragmatic relations.”
Ukrainian ground forces have shot down a Russian fighter jet near the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, a Ukrainian official has said. Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, also said Kyiv’s forces had made gains in northern parts of the city.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenary Wagner group, said Russian forces have taken control of the settlement of Zaliznyanskoye and are expanding the encirclement of Bakhmut. Neither side’s claims of success in what has become the longest-running battle since the war began could be verified.
Vladimir Putin and the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, met today in Moscow.
Russia’s defence ministry will start a new recruitment campaign on 1 April, with the aim of recruiting 400,000 professional soldiers to the Russian army, according to a report. Russian military recruitment offices are trying to compensate for its losses in specialised soldiers, such as tank drivers and artillerymen, according to a separate report.
Finland’s president, Sauli Niinistö, has said he expects his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to tell him whether Turkey is endorsing the Nordic country’s Nato membership application when the two meet in Ankara later this week. The news came as the Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said on a visit to Berlin that he hoped his country’s Nato accession would be ratified by Turkey soon after general elections scheduled for May.
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Austin is asked by a reporter to provide more detail about his conversation with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu.
The US secretary of defence says he won’t go into the details of the discussion, but that he will reiterate that the US “will fly and operate wherever international law allows”.
Austin says:
We take any potential for escalation very seriously and that’s why I believe it’s important to keep the lines of communication open.
He says that it is “really key” that both sides can “pick up on the phone and engage with each other” and that he believes it will help to “prevent miscalculation” going forward.
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Austin goes on to say that the Ukraine defence contact group has just concluded its tenth “highly successful” meeting.
Kyiv’s allies “all understand that Ukraine’s battle to defend itself from Russian aggression is vital for everyone who values the core principles of sovereignty, self-determination and freedom”, he says.
The group was joined by Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, today who underscored the “continued urgency” of the group’s support, Austin says.
Russia hopes to grind down Ukraine in a war of attrition, but Ukraine has been supplied by more than 40 countries.
Meanwhile, Russia has had to depend on Iran and North Korea [and] has had to use equipment dating back to World War Two. So Russia is running out of capability and running out of friends.
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The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, is speaking at a joint news conference with Gen Mark Milley, chairman of America’s joint chiefs of staff.
Austin describes yesterday’s downing of a US surveillance drone as a “hazardous episode” involving “dangerous and reckless and unprofessional” behaviour by Russian aircraft over the Black Sea.
The incident is “part of a pattern of aggressive, risky and unsafe actions” by Russian pilots in international airspace, he says.
Austin says he “just got off the phone” with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, and that he told him Russia must operate its military aircraft in a “safe and professional” manner.
Blinken says drone incident with Russia ‘is being investigated’
US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said that Russia’s downing of a US military surveillance drone over the Black Sea “is being investigated”.
Speaking at a news conference during an official visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Blinken declined to speak to the motive or intent behind the incident, saying he would let the investigation proceed.
He said:
What I can say very clearly is this was a reckless and unsafe action.
Blinken said the US is “in close coordination” with allies and partners on the matter.
The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, accused Russia of acting “unprofessionally” in an incident that led to the downing of a $32m US Reaper drone in the Black Sea after it was harassed by two Russian fighter jets.
The comments, made while the minister was visiting Japan, reflect an emerging western view that the extraordinary mid-air incident was a one-off, not immediately meriting anything stronger than diplomatic complaints.
“The Americans have said they think it was very unprofessional,” Wallace said as he was filmed walking around a defence industry conference.
The key here is that all parties respect international airspace; we urge the Russians to do so.
It is common for Russian jets to harass western military planes flying over neutral airspace by flying at an unsafe, close distance, but the presumption is that on this occasion, one of Moscow’s pilots miscalculated – and struck a propeller on the Reaper.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said its staff made “very good progress” in talks with Ukrainian officials on a set of policies that could underpin a new lending programme for Ukraine.
Talks could be finalised in the coming days, Vahram Stepanyan, the IMF resident representative to Ukraine, said. An agreement is expected by the end of the week, Reuters cited two sources as saying.
Ukrainian officials have said they hope to agree a $15bn multi-year programme with the IMF, which would be the country’s largest loan package since Russia’s full-scale invasion over a year ago.
Stepanyan said:
The discussions between IMF staff and the Ukrainian authorities were productive and very good progress has been made towards agreement on a set of policies that could underpin a fund-supported programme.
The package, which would still need to be approved by the IMF’s board, would help unlock lending from other sources. Group of Seven rich countries are expected to provide the financial backing required by the IMF to proceed.
The BBC’s Francis Scarr has shared a video report by Russian state media that elementary military training lessons have begun in occupied Crimea.
Russian state media report that elementary military training lessons have begun in occupied Crimea pic.twitter.com/fsAEpTR0QC
— Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) March 15, 2023
Russian warplane shot down near Bakhmut, says Ukraine
Ukrainian ground forces have shot down a Russian fighter jet near the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, a Ukrainian official has said.
Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, also said Kyiv’s forces had made gains in northern parts of the city.
Meanwhile, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenary Wagner group, said in a social media post today that Russian forces have taken control of the settlement of Zaliznyanskoye and are expanding the encirclement of Bakhmut.
Neither side’s claims of success in what has become the longest-running battle since the war began could be verified.
On Tuesday, Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his military chiefs agreed to keep defending Bakhmut. Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, said the defence of the city was of “paramount strategic importance”.
Zaluzhnyi said:
It is key to the stability of the defence of the entire front.
US: drone incident likely unintentional from Russia
The collision of a Russian fighter jet with a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea was likely an unintentional act from Russia’s side, the US state department’s spokesperson, Ned Price, has said.
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Finland’s president, Sauli Niinistö, has said he expects his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to confirm that Turkey is endorsing the Nordic country’s Nato membership application when the two meet in Ankara later this week.
“We knew that when Turkish President Erdoğan on his part has decided to ratify Finland’s Nato membership, he wants to meet and fulfil his promise, president to president,” Niinistö told Reuters in an email on Wednesday.
The news came as the Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said on a visit to Berlin that he hoped his country’s Nato accession would be ratified by Turkey soon after general elections scheduled for May.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, told reporters that the accession of Sweden and Finland to the military alliance was critical “for our security”.
Both countries last year abandoned decades of military non-alignment in a historic policy shift triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, submitting simultaneous Nato applications and pledging to complete the process “hand in hand”.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, have met today in Moscow.
Reuters reports that in the televised meeting Assad said Russia was fighting neo-Nazis and “old Nazis” in Ukraine, according to a Russian translation.
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Russian authorities say they will try to recover the remnants of the US surveillance drone that fell into the Black Sea after an encounter with Russian fighter jets.
Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s security council, said in televised remarks that Russia planned to search for the drone’s debris. He said:
I don’t know if we can recover them or not, but we will certainly have to do that, and we will deal with it. I certainly hope for success.
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The German government has called on Russia to extend a deal allowing the export of grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports beyond 60 days.
The deal should continue indefinitely, a German government spokesperson said, after Russia said on Monday that it had agreed to extend the deal but only for another 60 days, drawing an immediate challenge from Kyiv.
Speaking at a regular news conference, the German spokespesrson added that the collision of a Russian fighter jet with a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday is “cause for concern”.
Earlier we reported that the Chinese defence ministry had announced that China, Iran and Russia would conduct joint maritime drills in the Gulf of Oman starting today.
The “Security Bond-2023” exercises will also involve other countries, the ministry said, without giving details.
The drills would “help deepen practical cooperation between the participating countries’ navies … and inject positive energy into regional peace and stability”, a ministry statement said.
The White House was not concerned by the joint training exercise, spokesperson John Kirby said. He told CNN:
We’re going to watch it, we’ll monitor it, obviously, to make sure that there’s no threat resulting from this training exercise to our national security interests or those of our allies and partners in the region. But nations train. We do it all the time. We’ll watch it as best we can.
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Russia plans to recruit 400,000 contract soldiers - report
Russia’s defence ministry will start a new recruitment campaign on 1 April, with the aim of recruiting 400,000 professional soldiers to the Russian army, according to a report.
Radio Svoboda, citing several regional media outlets, has reported that the Russian defence ministry has already sent orders to regions indicating the number of people with whom military contracts should be signed.
According to the plan, Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk oblasts will have 10,000 contractors each, it said. In Perm Krai, 9,000 individuals will reportedly be recruited.
The main part of the work will be carried out by military enlistment offices, and governors will be responsible for the implementation of the plan, it said.
Russian military recruitment offices are trying to compensate for its losses in specialised soldiers, such as tank drivers and artillerymen, the Vyorstka outlet has reported.
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Ukraine can defend a $3bn Eurobond lawsuit brought by Russia, the UK’s supreme court has declared in a long-awaited ruling.
Britain’s top court ruled that Ukraine could defend the lawsuit, which was brought in 2016, on the basis that Russia’s threats of military force amounted to illegitimate pressure on Ukraine to assume the $3bn debt, Reuters is reporting.
The case centres on billions of dollars borrowed from Russia from Viktor Yanukovich, the pro-Russian Ukrainian president who was toppled in a popular uprising in 2014.
Ukraine says the debt was procured by duress, including unlawful trade measures to deter the country from signing an association agreement with the EU and threats to its territory.
Today’s ruling paves the way for a full trial of Ukraine’s case that it had to accept the money in the face of Russian aggression.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the ruling as a “another decisive victory against the aggressor”, writing on Twitter: “Justice will be ours.”
Today Ukraine secured another decisive victory against the aggressor, this time in the UK Supreme Court in the $3bn bonds case. The Court has ruled that Ukraine’s defence based on russia’s threats of aggression will have a full public trial. Justice will be ours.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 15, 2023
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US drone may never be recovered from Black Sea, says White House
The US MQ-9 drone that crashed into the Black Sea has not been recovered and may never be recovered, the White House’s spokesperson, John Kirby, has said.
“It has not been recovered,” Kirby said in an interview with CNN.
I’m not sure that we’re going to be able to recover it. Where it fell into the Black Sea – very, very deep water. So we’re still assessing whether there can be any kind of recovery effort. There may not be.
He added:
We did the best we could to minimise any intelligence value that might come from somebody else getting their hands on that drone.
The US state department summoned the Russian ambassador, Anatoly Antonov, to express concerns over the incident, the first since the war in Ukraine began.
US officials told Antonov that Moscow has to be more careful when flying in international airspace, Kirby said.
The message that we delivered to the Russian ambassador is that they need to be more careful in flying in international airspace near US assets that are, again, flying in completely legal ways, conducting missions in support of our national security interests.
Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong here taking over the live blog from Martin Belam. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
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Here are some recent images from Ukraine that we have received via the news wires.
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Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, has posted to social media to say that the area hit in Kharkiv this morning was near a school and that there were no casualties.
The Russians launched a missile attack on Kharkiv. A school area was hit, the building is partially damaged, windows off. No casualties, fortunately.
— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) March 15, 2023
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Summary of the day so far …
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that relations with the US were in a “lamentable state” and at their lowest level, after Washington accused Russia of downing one of its reconnaissance drones over the Black Sea. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there had been no high-level contact with Washington over the incident.
On Tuesday the US said a Russian fighter collided with a US Reaper drone, forcing it down into the Black Sea in what US forces called an “unsafe and unprofessional” intercept. A US European Command statement said the collision happened just after 7am on Tuesday, when two Russian Su-27 fighter jets flew up to the MQ-9 Reaper drone over international waters west of Crimea. The statement said the Russian pilots sought to disrupt the US aircraft before the collision.
The US state department summoned Russia’s ambassador over the drone incident. The White House said the drone’s downing was unique and would be raised directly by state department officials with their Russian counterparts.
The Russian ambassador to the US called the incident a “provocation”. Russia’s RIA state news agency cited Anatoly Antonov as saying: “We do not want any confrontation between the United States and Russia. We are in favour of building pragmatic relations.” Antonov made the comments after being summoned to the US state department. He later added: “We are concerned about the unacceptable activity of the US military in the immediate vicinity of our borders,” accusing the US of supplying intelligence to Kyiv.
The Pentagon said the drone was on a routine ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) mission. US air force Brig Gen Pat Ryders said Russia did not have the drone, but he declined to say whether Russia was seeking the wreckage so that its military intelligence could dissect it.
Russia’s defence ministry maintained that its fighters “did not use airborne weapons and did not come into contact” with the US drone. The ministry said fighters from its air defence forces were raised into the air to identify the drone, which the ministry said was heading “in direction of the state border of the Russian Federation”.
British defence secretary Ben Wallace has urged Moscow to respect international airspace.
State broadcaster Suspilne is reporting that the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv was struck on Wednesday by a S-300 missile fired from the Belgorod region of Russia.
Turkey is planning to approve Finland’s application for Nato membership – independently from Sweden’s – before parliamentary and presidential elections that will take place on 14 May, two Turkish officials told Reuters on Wednesday. Finland’s president, Sauli Niinistö, will travel to Turkey on 16 March and meet with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The Danish government and a broad majority of parties in Denmark’s parliament have agreed to establish a fund of 7bn Danish crowns (£822m / $1bn) for civil, military and business aid to Ukraine. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has expressed his thanks on social media.
Germany’s defence industry says it is ready to ramp up its output, including the production of the kinds of arms and ammunition needed by Ukraine, but that it needs clarity about what governments want before investing in further production capacity.
China, Iran and Russia will conduct maritime drills in the Gulf of Oman starting today, the China defence ministry says. The drills will run until 19 March.
Russia has proposed suspending its double taxation agreements with what it calls “unfriendly countries” – those that have imposed sanctions on Moscow, the finance ministry said on Wednesday.
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Kremlin: no high-level contact with US over drone incident; US-Russia relations in 'lamentable state'
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that relations with the US were in a “lamentable state” and at their lowest level, after Washington accused Russia of downing one of its reconnaissance drones over the Black Sea.
Reuters reports that the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said there had been no high-level contact with Washington over the incident and that Russia would never refuse to engage in constructive dialogue.
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Here is a clip of the UK’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, calling for Russia to respect international airspace.
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Volodymyr Zelenskiy has expressed his thanks to Denmark for setting up a new fund to help support Ukraine. [See 8.15GMT]
The president of Ukraine tweeted:
Sincerely grateful to Denmark’s Folketinget, prime minister and government for establishing the Ukrainian support fund. More than $1bn in military, humanitarian and economic aid to Ukraine is a guarantee of bringing our common victory over the aggressor and the return of peace to Europe closer!
Sincerely grateful to 🇩🇰 @folketinget, PM @Statsmin and Government for establishing 🇺🇦 Support Fund. More than $1 billion in military, humanitarian & economic aid to Ukraine is a guarantee of bringing our common victory over the aggressor and the return of peace to Europe closer!
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 15, 2023
State broadcaster Suspilne is reporting that the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv has been struck by a S-300 missile fired from the Belgorod region in Russia. It posted to Telegram to say that “the shot was near one of the buildings of the Shevchenkivskyi district, said Dmytro Chubenko, the spokesperson of the regional prosecutor’s office”.
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The secretary of the national security and defence council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, has said that the drone incident shows that Russia is willing to expand its war.
He posted to social media to say: “The incident with the American MQ-9 Reaper UAV, provoked by Russia in the Black Sea, is Putin’s signal of readiness to expand the conflict zone with the involvement of other parties.”
Інцидент з американським БПЛА MQ-9 Reaper, спровокований росією в Чорному морі, – це сигнал путіна про готовність до розширення зони конфлікту із втягуванням інших сторін. Тактика ва-банк – постійне підвищення ставок в умовах стратегічного програшу в надії на зміну обставин.
— Oleksiy Danilov (@OleksiyDanilov) March 15, 2023
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Turkey to approve Finland Nato membership in coming days
Turkey plans to approve Finland’s application for Nato membership – independently from Sweden’s – before parliamentary and presidential elections that will take place on 14 May, two Turkish officials told Reuters on Wednesday.
The Turkish parliament is highly likely to ratify Finland’s Nato membership before it closes mid-April for elections, the officials said.
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Russia has proposed suspending its double taxation agreements with what it calls “unfriendly countries” – those that have imposed sanctions on Moscow, the finance ministry said on Wednesday.
“The Russian finance ministry and foreign ministry proposed that the president of Russia issue a decree suspending double taxation agreements with all countries that introduced unilateral economic restrictive measures against Russia,” Reuters reports it saying.
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Finland’s president, Sauli Niinistö, will travel to Turkey on 16 March and meet with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to discuss Nato membership and other issues, the Finnish president’s office said on Wednesday.
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Kharkiv’s governor, Oleh Synyehubov, has urged residents to stay in shelters during air alerts, posting to Telegram that “the occupiers strike again”.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reported within the last 10 minutes that “an explosion rang out in Kharkiv”.
Social media users are reporting that a black column of smoke can be seen in the sky.
More details soon …
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The Danish government and a broad majority of parties in Denmark’s parliament have agreed to establish a fund of 7bn Danish crowns (£822m / $1bn) for civil, military and business aid to Ukraine, Reuters reports the finance ministry said on Wednesday.
The British ambassador to Ukraine has said that the repeated air warnings in the country are a test of resilience for the population. In a tweet, Melinda Simmons said:
Spare a thought for people living with seemingly endless air raid sirens right now. Sirens alone are enough to cause stress. Trying to carry on as normal while diving in and out of hard cover tests anyone’s resilience.
Spare a thought for 🇺🇦 people living with seemingly endless air raid sirens right now. Sirens alone are enough to cause stress. Trying to carry on as normal while diving in and out of hard cover tests anyone’s resilience.
— Dame Melinda Simmons (@MelSimmonsFCDO) March 15, 2023
Her tweet comes as an air alarm has been declared across multiple regions in Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv.
Germany’s defence industry says it stands ready to ramp up its output, including the kinds of arms and ammunition needed by Ukraine, but needs clarity about what governments want before investing in further production capacity.
Ukraine became the world’s third largest importer of arms in 2022 after Russia’s invasion triggered a big flow of military aid to Kyiv from the US and Europe, according to Swedish thinktank SIPRI.
Some of those arms were transferred from western military stocks to Ukraine, while in other cases Kyiv has bought equipment with its own money or funds provided by allies. But there are concerns particularly over the rate at which Ukraine is using ammunition, straining the capacity of western defence companies to keep both the Ukrainian military and their own resupplied.
“What’s important for us as an industry is to get predictability,” the head of Germany’s arms manufacturing association said in an interview this week with the Associated Press.
“That means we have to be clearly told which products are needed within which time,” said Hans Christoph Atzpodien, managing director of the Federation of German Security and Defence Industries.
“And we are prepared,” he added. “The industry is much more flexible than it is given credit for.
“Of course we also need a firm basis in the form of orders, so that the investments can be carried out.”
Atzpodien said proposals to bundle purchases at a European rather than national level could help – provided this didn’t slow down the procurement process.
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Russia ambassador to US tells Washington 'stop flying near Russian borders'
The state-owned Russian news agency Tass is carrying some additional quotes from Moscow’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, in which he expresses Russia’s concern about US activity and likens it to Russia positioning drones off the coast of the US. He is quoted as saying:
We are concerned about the unacceptable activity of the US military in the immediate vicinity of our borders. We are well aware of the purpose for which such unmanned reconnaissance and strike vehicles are used.
What are they doing thousands of kilometres from the US? The answer is obvious: they are collecting intelligence information, which is subsequently used by the Kyiv regime to strike at our armed forces and territory.
Let us ask ourselves a rhetorical question: if, for example, a Russian strike drone appeared near New York or San Francisco, what would be the reaction of the US air force and navy? I am sure that the actions of the US military would be uncompromising in nature, not allowing a “breakthrough” its air or maritime space.
We presume that the United States will refrain from further speculation in the media space and will stop flying near Russian borders.
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Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that Znob-Novhorodske in Sumy oblast was struck six times overnight by Russian artillery fire, but says there were “no consequences”.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
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Thanks for following along – that’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. My colleague Martin Belam will take you through the rest of the day’s news.
Russia calls on US to stop 'hostile' flights
AFP has this flash of news, saying Russia has called on the US to halt what it calls its “hostile” flights, after the collision of a Russian fighter jet with a US MQ-9 Reaper drone that the Pentagon said was conducting a routine flight.
We should have more detail on the statement shortly.
#BREAKING Russia calls on US to halt 'hostile' flights after collision pic.twitter.com/4imbjpjPor
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) March 15, 2023
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China, Iran and Russia will conduct maritime drills in the Gulf of Oman starting today, the China defence ministry says. The drills will run until 19 March.
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What is the MQ-9 Reaper?
The collision of the Russian fighter jet with a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea has raised fears of an escalation in Ukraine conflict. Close encounters between western and Russian aircraft are not unusual, but the incident on Tuesday raises the stakes because it led to US officials having to crash land the drone into the sea.
The use of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), in and around war zones has been going on for decades.
This is what we know about the MQ-9 Reaper and how it is traditionally deployed:
The MQ-9 Reaper is a large unmanned aircraft manufactured by military contractor, General Atomics. It is remotely operated by a two-person team, consisting of a pilot and an aircrew member who operates sensors and guides weapons.
The aircraft is 11 metres long with a wingspan of over 22 metres. The US air force says its primary use is as “an intelligence-collection asset”, while also highlighting its “unique capability to perform” precision strikes against “high-value and time-sensitive targets”. Reaper’s can carry as many as 16 Hellfire missiles, equivalent to the payload capacity of an Apache helicopter.
Reapers, like other UAVs, are able to fly at an altitude of 50,000 ft (15 km) and can loiter over targets for about 24 hours, making them useful for surveillance missions. Crucially, all of this occurs with a flight crew that remains based in the United States, away from danger.
Over the 2018 calendar year, MQ-9 Reapers flew a total of 325,000 hours for the US air force, 91% of which was in support of combat operations.
You can read more about how the drones are used here:
Australia defence minister says Russia is 'not playing by the rules'
Australia’s defence minister, Richard Marles, has commented on the drone incident, saying: “I think this, again, is an example of Russia not playing by the rules, which is actually what’s at stake in the whole conflict in Ukraine.”
He added: “Russia have some explaining to do in terms of the way in which they’ve acted in respect of this drone.”
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Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, had this to say when Reuters asked her about the drone incident.
The conflict is at a “very sensitive stage,” she said, “because it really is the first direct contact that the public knows about between the West and Russia.”
RAF and German jets intercept Russian aircraft
The UK’S Royal Air Force and German fighter jets have intercepted a Russian aircraft flying over Estonian airspace, the BBC reports.
“The interception itself was routine, but it is the first time such an operation has been carried out together by the two countries,” the BBC writes.
The two countries are conducting planned joint Nato air policing in the region and intercepted the refuelling aircraft because it failed to communicate with Estonian air traffic control.
The UK’s armed forces minister, James Heappey, said, “Nato continues to form the bedrock of our collective security. This joint UK and German deployment in the Baltics clearly demonstrates our collective resolve to challenge any potential threat to Nato’s borders, while demonstrating our combined strength.”
Assad to meet Putin in Moscow
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad arrived in Moscow on Tuesday on his first official visit outside the Middle East since February’s devastating earthquake, according to a statement from the Syrian Presidency via the Telegram messaging app.
Assad will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit, alongside a large Syrian ministerial delegation, the statement said.
A Kremlin statement said the two leaders would discuss cooperation in the political, trade and humanitarian spheres “as well as prospects for an overall settlement of the situation in and around Syria”.
Russia launched a military campaign in Syria in 2015 that helped to turn the tide in its civil war in favour of Assad by conducting massive aerial bombardments of opposition-held areas and helping Assad to regain much of the territory he lost to rebels who sought to topple him.
Syria remains Moscow’s firmest foothold on the southern flank of Nato, Reuters reports.
Moscow should respect international airspace, says UK defence minister
Responding to the drone incident, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has urged Moscow to respect international airspace.
“The key here is that all parties respect international airspace and we urge the Russians to do so,” Wallace told Reuters at the DSEI Japan defence show in Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo. “The Americans have said they think it is unprofessional,” he added.
The incident involving a Russian Su-27 fighter jet fighter plane and a US military MQ-9 drone is the first such direct encounter between the two powers since Russia invaded Ukraine over a year ago, Reuters reports, and risks deepening tensions between Washington and Moscow.
Russia said it viewed the incident as a provocation.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next few hours.
British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace urged Moscow to respect international airspace, after the United States said that Russia had caused one of its drones to crash into the Black Sea on Tuesday.
We’ll have more on the response to the drone incident shortly. In the meantime, here are the key recent developments:
A Russian fighter collided with a US Reaper drone, forcing it down into the Black Sea, in what US forces called an “unsafe and unprofessional” intercept. A US European Command statement said the collision happened just after 7am on Tuesday, when two Russian Su-27 fighter jets flew up to the MQ-9 Reaper drone over international waters west of Crimea. The statement said the Russian pilots sought to disrupt the US aircraft before the collision.
The US state department summoned the Russia’s ambassador over the drone incident. The White House said the drone’s downing was unique and would be raised directly by state department officials with their Russian counterparts.
The Russian ambassador to the US called the incident a ‘provocation’. Russia’s RIA state news agency cited Anatoly Antonov as saying, “We do not want any confrontation between the United States and Russia. We are in favour of building pragmatic relations”. Antonov made the comments after being summoned to the US state department.
The Pentagon said the drone was on a routine ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) mission. US air force Brig Gen Pat Ryders said Russia did not have the drone. But he declined to say whether Russia was seeking the wreckage so that its military intelligence could dissect it.
Russia’s defence ministry maintained that its fighters “did not use airborne weapons and did not come into contact” with the US drone. The ministry said fighters from its air defence forces were raised into the air to identify the drone, which the ministry said was heading “in direction of the state border of the Russian Federation”.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his military chiefs have agreed to keep defending the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut. Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, said the defence of Bakhmut was of “paramount strategic importance”. He said: “It is key to the stability of the defence of the entire front.”
AFP journalists in Eastern Ukraine reported seeing white phosphorus fired from Russian positions on an uninhabited road leading to nearby Bakhmut. Weapons containing phosphorus are incendiary arms whose use against civilians is banned, but they can be deployed against military targets under a 1980 convention signed in Geneva. The Guardian is unable to verify these reports from AFP.
The UN was scrambling Tuesday to ensure a Ukrainian grain exports deal aimed to ease the global food crisis can continue, but its fate remained unclear days before the 18 March expiry date. Talks between top Russian and United Nations officials in Geneva ended Monday with Moscow saying it would not oppose prolonging the so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative, as many had feared.
At least one person was killed and three people were injured in shelling of Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region on Tuesday morning, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. The Ukrainian president said six high-rise buildings were damaged, adding: “The evil state continues to fight against the civilian population. Every strike that takes an innocent life must result in a lawful and just sentence that punishes murder.
