For his part, a White House spokesman, John Kirby, said on CNN that the United States had taken precautions to “to make it impossible (for Russia) to glean anything of intelligence value”if she managed to fish out the wreckage of the drone. “It’s our property and they don’t have to recover anything”he blurted out. “We are confident that everything that used to have value no longer has any”added the American Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley.
And still it is necessary to reach the remains of the device, since the recovery operation looks complicated anyway. The United States could also try to recover the Reaper, but “we have no ships in the Black Sea at the moment” and the drone probably broke up and sank in a deep area of 1200 to 1500 meters, he claimed.
As for the course of the incident, the White House maintains its scenario of a voluntary clash provoked by Moscow. “I cannot speak at this stage of a motive or an intention (on the part of the Russians, editor’s note), but what I can say very clearly is that it was a rash action. and dangerous”said Secretary of State Antony Blinken. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin meanwhile assured that the United States would continue to fly “where permitted by international law”. He also called on Russia to “to make fly its military planes in a professional and safe manner”during a press conference, after a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu.