Russia-Ukraine updates: Russian jet downs US drone over Black Sea
All the updates from March 14: Russian fighter jet has collided with a US drone in an incident condemned as ‘reckless’.
This blog is now closed, thanks for joining us. These were the updates on the Russia-Ukraine war on Tuesday, March 14.
This blog is now closed, thanks for joining us. These were the updates on the Russia-Ukraine war on Tuesday, March 14.
- The White House says a Russian fighter jet has downed a US military drone over the Black Sea. Moscow has denied responsibility.
- One person was killed and seven wounded when a Russian missile hit an apartment building in the city of Kramatorsk, Ukrainian officials say.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his top military command agree to continue to defend the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
- Moscow does not recognise the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, the Kremlin said, after reports suggested the court was seeking arrest warrants for Russians connected with the war.
Putin says Americans continue to ‘occupy’ Germany
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Germany’s response to the explosion of the North Sea pipelines showed the country remained “occupied” and unable to act independently, decades after its surrender at the end of World War II.
Western countries, including Germany, have reacted cautiously to investigations into the blasts that hit Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipelines last year, saying they believed them to be a deliberate act but declining to say who they thought was responsible.
“The matter is that European politicians have said themselves publicly that after World War II, Germany was never a fully sovereign state,” Russian news agencies quoted Putin as telling the state Rossiya-1 TV channel.
“The Soviet Union at one point withdrew its forces and ended what amounted to an occupation of the country. But that, as is well known, was not the case with the Americans. They continue to occupy Germany.”
Unclear whether US drone contained sensitive equipment: AJ correspondent
Al Jazeera’s Washington, DC correspondent Shihab Rattansi says it is unclear whether the United States predator drone that crashed in the Black Sea was armed or on an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) mission.
“There are questions over whether there was sensitive equipment on this drone” and whether the US was able to retrieve it or whether Russia was in possession of it, Rattansi said.
The Pentagon is currently going through the process of declassifying the images of the incident, which could potentially be released, the correspondent added.
US Senate leader calls on Putin to stop ‘reckless’ behaviour
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calls the incident that led to the crash of a US Reaper surveillance drone “another reckless act” by Putin and his military.
“I want to tell Mr Putin, ‘stop this behaviour before you are the reason for an unintended escalation’,” the leader of the Democratic Party majority in the Senate said in remarks to the chamber.
US had to crash drone into Black Sea after damage: Pentagon
The US military was forced to crash its MQ-9 Reaper surveillance drone because of the damage caused when it was struck by a Russian jet, the Pentagon says.
“Because of the damage, we were in a position to have to essentially crash into the Black Sea,” Brigadier General Pat Ryder told reporters, adding that the drone was unflyable after the damage.
Ryder said Russia had not recovered the crashed drone.
US says downing of drone a ‘brazen violation of international law’
US Department of State spokesperson Ned Price says the downing of a US drone while in international airspace near Crimea is a “brazen violation of international law”.
He said the US has summoned the Russian ambassador to lodge a protest and the US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, has made similar representations in Moscow.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the US has been flying over that airspace for a year and “we’re going to continue to do that”.
“We don’t need to have some sort of check-in with the Russians before we fly in international airspace,” Kirby said. “There’s no requirement to do that nor do we do it.”
The incident, which raised tensions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, appeared to mark the first time since the height of the Cold War that a US aircraft was brought down after being hit by a Russian warplane.
Russia denies it downed US military drone
Russia’s defence ministry says its fighter jets did not come into contact with a US drone that crashed into the Black Sea, saying instead that the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) crashed due to “sharp manoeuvring”.
“The Russian fighters did not use their onboard weapons, did not come into contact with the UAV and returned safely to their home airfield,” the ministry said.
US warns Russia against ‘unintended escalation’: AJ correspondent
Two Russian Su-27 jets have carried out what the US military describes as a reckless intercept of a US spy drone at 7:03am [06:03 GMT].
Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi said the international waters above the Black Sea where the US drone was flying are “clearly a sensitive area” for Russia.
“The Russians feel this is their sphere of influence and it’s actually pretty common to have that kind of shadowing between adversarial fighter jets, aircrafts and drones in this area and in others around the world,” Rattansi said. “What is different is this collision.”
Rattansi said a US military statement emphasised a lack of competence on Moscow’s part, implying the collision might have been accidental.
“But then the statement does go on to warn Russia against aggressive action and unintended escalation, which is why we are all concerned about incidents like this,” he said.
US military says Russian jet dumped fuel on American drone
A Russian fighter jet dumped fuel on a US drone over the Black Sea and then collided with it, causing the drone to crash, the US military says.
The US European Command said two Russian Su-27 fighters intercepted the unmanned MQ-9 Reaper over international waters and one clipped its propeller.
“Several times before the collision, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” it said.
US summons Russian envoy over drone crash: State Department
The US government has summoned Russia’s ambassador to protest the crash of an American drone over the Black Sea after a Russian warplane collided with it, the Department of State says.
“We are summoning the Russian ambassador to the state department,” spokesperson Ned Price told reporters in Washington, DC.
Putin says state actors behind Nord Stream blasts
Putin says last year’s blasts on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea had been carried out on a “state level”, dismissing the idea that an autonomous pro-Ukraine group was responsible as “complete nonsense”.
“The terrorist act, quite obviously, was committed at the state level because no amateurs can commit such an action,” Putin said, according to state media.
A New York Times report last week said new US intelligence indicated a pro-Ukraine group was behind the September 26 explosions on the pipelines connecting Russia and Germany.
NATO’s top commander briefs allies on Black Sea collision
NATO’s top military commander has informed allies about a collision over the Black Sea involving a Russian fighter jet and a US military drone, a NATO official says.
“General [Christopher] Cavoli has briefed NATO allies on the incident today,” the official told Reuters.
White House says drone collision ‘unsafe and unprofessional’
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby says an incident over the Black Sea in which a Russian Su-27 fighter jet struck the propeller of a US “Reaper” surveillance drone was noteworthy.
While there have been other such intercepts, this one was “unsafe and unprofessional” and caused the downing of a US aircraft. “So it’s unique in that regard,” Kirby said.
He said President Joe Biden was briefed about the incident, which was condemned as “reckless” by the US military.
Russian jet collides with US drone over Black Sea: US military
A Russian Su-27 jet fighter has collided with an American MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea, the US military’s European Command said.
“Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9,” said US air force General James Hecker, commander of US Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa.
The US military said the incident followed a pattern of dangerous behaviour by Russian pilots operating near aircraft flown by the US and its allies, including over the Black Sea.
Netherlands to give Ukraine minesweepers
The Netherlands will give Ukraine two minesweepers, drone radar and an M3 amphibious bridge-building system, Dutch Defence Minister Kajsa Ollongren says in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa.
Ollongren spoke at a news conference with her Ukrainian counterpart, Oleksii Reznikov.
The two minesweepers are to be delivered to Ukraine in 2025 because the ships are intended to look for mines in the Black Sea after the war.
The Netherlands, Belgium and possibly other allies are to train Ukrainian crews on how to use the minesweepers starting in the second half of this year.
Hungary to postpone NATO vote on Nordic countries
Hungary’s parliament will postpone a vote on ratifying the NATO accession bids of Sweden and Finland following a proposal from a senior government official.
In a letter published Tuesday by the Hungarian news website hvg.hu, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen requested that a parliamentary session scheduled to begin on March 20 be postponed to a week later.
Semjen cited Hungary’s ongoing negotiations with the European Union’s executive branch over Budapest’s alleged breaches of the bloc’s rule-of-law requirements as the reason for the delay.
Hungary and Turkey are the only NATO member countries that have not approved the two Nordic countries’ bids to join the Western military alliance.
IOC urges UK to respect ‘autonomy of sport’
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has urged the United Kingdom government to respect the “autonomy of sport” after an attempt to lobby sponsors against Russian and Belarusian athletes participating at next year’s Paris Games.
Last week, UK Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer wrote a letter to 13 of the biggest Olympic sponsors, urging them to pressure the IOC to abandon its plan to allow Russian and Belarusian competitors.
“It is not up to governments to decide which athletes can participate in which international competitions,” the IOC argued. “This would be the end of world sport as we know it today.”
“We hope very much that the British government will respect the autonomy of sport,” it said.
“In accordance with this, Olympic sponsors are not involved in this decision-making process,” the IOC said.
Has the war in Ukraine reached a stalemate?
As the death toll mounts in the battle for Bakhmut with neither side backing down, the war shows no signs of ending.
The Kremlin has repeatedly said it would only consider a peace agreement that regards Ukrainian regions annexed by Moscow as Russian territory. However, Ukraine has said it refuses to negotiate on illegally taken areas.
Al Jazeera’s Inside Story speaks to experts on whether the war has reached a stalemate.
German military stockpiles lower than before war: Commissioner
The German military is suffering from a greater shortage of weapons and equipment than before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces says in her annual report.
“The Bundeswehr has too little of everything, and it has even less since [Russia’s invasion on] February 24, 2022,” Eva Hoegl told reporters in Berlin.
She denounced the government for being slow not only in spending but also in replenishing the military’s stocks after rushing arms to Kyiv.
“Our troops welcome the support for Ukraine although it tears big holes [into their stocks] when howitzers, multiple rocket launchers or Leopard tanks are handed over to Kyiv,” Hoegl said, demanding orders to be placed more swiftly.
Putin says Russia involved in battle for ‘survival’
Russia is involved in a battle for its existence, President Vladimir Putin says during a visit to an aviation factory in the far eastern region of Buryatia.
“For us, this is not a geopolitical task but a task of the survival of Russian statehood, creating conditions for the future development of the country and our children,” he said.
In response to a question about the economy, Putin said that since the West imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia last year, the economy has proved more robust than expected.
“We have increased our economic sovereignty many times over. After all, what did our enemy count on? That we would collapse in two to three weeks or in a month,” he said.
Poland could send Ukraine fighter jets in six weeks
Poland could dispatch fighter jets to Ukraine in four to six weeks, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki says.
Poland has said it would be prepared to send Soviet-designed MiG-29 jets to Ukraine as part of a coalition of countries. However, Kyiv’s allies are taking a cautious approach to the transfer of fighter jets, so it is unclear how long this might take.
“That could happen in the coming four to six weeks,” Morawiecki said at a news conference when asked how long it could be before Warsaw supplies the aircraft.
Ukrainian forces to continue defending Bakhmut: Zelenskyy
Zelenskyy and his top military commanders have agreed to continue to defend Bakhmut, the president’s office says.
After a meeting involving the president, top government officials and military commanders, Zelenskyy’s office said in a statement: “After considering the defensive operation in the Bakhmut direction, all members … expressed a common position to continue holding and defending the city of Bakhmut.”
Who controls what?
Here are four maps we update daily, charting the latest war developments.
Serbia is under pressure to join Western sanctions: Russia
Serbia is under pressure to impose sanctions on Russia, a spokesperson for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says after a Serbian minister said the country should join Western sanctions against Moscow.
“Some strange position: America puts pressure on Serbia, and the Serbian minister calls for an action against Russia,” Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram.
Serbia has repeatedly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but at the UN, it has resisted Western pressure to impose sanctions.
On Monday, Rade Basta, Serbia’s economy minister, said Belgrade was paying “a high price” for its refusal to join an international embargo against Russia.
“Our country is already paying a high price for not imposing sanctions on Russia, and that is becoming unbearable,” Basta wrote on his Instagram account.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 384
Click here for a roundup of the war’s key events from day 384.
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Russia agrees to extend grain export deal out of ‘goodwill’, Kremlin says
Russia says it has agreed to extend the Black Sea grain export deal out of “goodwill”.
Asked why Russia had extended the deal for 60 days as opposed to the 120-day period set out in the grain agreement, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow’s decision was “a gesture of goodwill … in the hope that after such a long time, the obligations that have been assumed will be fulfilled”.
Peskov criticised the West for not doing enough to remove obstacles to Russia’s agricultural and fertiliser exports and said contacts over the deal would continue.
He added: “It is obvious that the second part of the deal, which concerns us, has not yet been fulfilled. … The deal cannot stand on one leg.”