Russia claims US trying to look for ‘provocations’ to escalate ‘confrontational approaches’

ISTANBUL

Russia claimed Wednesday that the US is trying to look for “provocations” to escalate its “confrontational approaches.”

"They completely ignore the fact that after the start of a special military operation, our military declared the relevant areas of the Black Sea, adjacent to the coast in certain places, as areas that have a limited status for use by any aircraft,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.

Lavrov claimed that Washington’s ignorance of the fact suggests that it is “constantly trying to look for some kind of provocation to escalate its confrontational approaches.”

"This is bad, because they constantly stated that they are a responsible power interested in strategic stability. By the way, this is what Secretary of State (Antony) Blinken said to me during a meeting in India. But words do not match deeds," Lavrov further noted.

Lavrov said any incidents that provoke a clash between “two great powers” always pose “very serious risks” for global security.

The comments come after two Russian SU-27 fighter jets "conducted an unsafe and unprofessional intercept" of a US MQ-9 Reaper on Monday, including dumping fuel on the drone and flying in front of it "in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner," according to the US' European Command.

The drone was conducting reconnaissance when one of the SU-27 jets struck the propeller of the MQ-9 Reaper, prompting the drone's operators to bring it down in international waters in the Black Sea.

Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said earlier that the drone attempted to gather reconnaissance information to convey it to Ukraine for strikes against Russia.

Russia denied that its fighter jets came into contact with the drone that Washington accused Moscow of bringing down.