A top Ukrainian security official said Wednesday that a U.S. spy drone-Russian fighter jet incident indicates that Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing to widen the Ukraine-Russia combat zone.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military claimed a Russian fighter jet cut a surveillance drone’s propeller and crashed it into the Black Sea. Russia said the drone crashed following “sharp movements” and denied a collision.
Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, tweeted his worry.
“Russia’s provocation of the US MQ-9 Reaper UAV in the Black Sea is Putin’s signal of preparedness to widen the combat zone with other parties,” he said.
He claimed Moscow was “constantly upping the stakes” to change the “conditions of a strategic loss” in its year-old conflict in Ukraine.
