The United States will continue to operate over the Black Sea and will not be deterred by Russia’s interception of an MQ-9 Reaper drone in international airspace, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday, CNN reported.

A Russian plane shot down an MQ-9 Reaper dronePhoto: APFootage / Alamy / Alamy / Profimedia

“If the message is that they want to prevent or deter us from flying and operating in the international airspace over the Black Sea, then that message fails because that’s not going to happen,” said John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for Homeland Security. council.

“We will continue to fly and operate in international airspace over international waters,” he added. “The Black Sea does not belong to any nation. And we will continue to do what we need to do for our national security interests in this part of the world.”

Kirby has repeatedly described Russia’s interception of a U.S. drone as “dangerous” and “unprofessional,” suggesting the actions went further than previous Russian attempts to intercept U.S. aircraft.

This is not the first time that Russian planes have intercepted American planes in the area

According to him, the presence of American drones in the area is not new.

“We were constantly flying over that airspace,” he said, arguing that there was no reason to activate lines of defiance with Russia or otherwise notify Moscow before flying over the Black Sea.

“We don’t need to go through any kind of registration with the Russians before we fly into international airspace,” he said.

A White House spokesman also said the interception of US aircraft over the Black Sea was “not unusual” and said there had been other interceptions in recent weeks, but Tuesday’s episode was unique because it was “untrustworthy, unprofessional and reckless”. Russian actions.

US President Joe Biden was briefed on Tuesday by national security adviser Jake Sullivan about the incident in which a US drone was shot down by a Russian aircraft over the Black Sea, according to a spokesman for the National Security Council.

NATO’s Supreme Commander also informed allies about the incident.

“General (Christopher) Cavoli today briefed NATO allies on the incident,” the official told Reuters.