American, Russian Military Chiefs Resume Contact Over Drone Downing

‘We know that the intercept was intentional,’ the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says.

AP/Massoud Hossaini, file
An Ameircan MQ-9 drone on display at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, in 2018. AP/Massoud Hossaini, file

The American defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, has spoken to his Russian counterpart about the destruction of an American drone over the Black Sea after an encounter with Russian fighter jets, which brought the two countries closest to direct conflict since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago.

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