Russian forces have threatened to shoot down French aircraft patrolling international airspace over the Black Sea last month, indicating increasingly aggressive behavior on the part of Moscow, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecorneuil said on Thursday, UNN reports citing AP.
Details
Minister Sébastien Lecornu did not provide specific details about the French flights or aircraft involved in the shoot-down incident. But he did say that Russia was returning to a "particularly aggressive" posture reminiscent of the former Soviet Union's behavior during the Cold War.
A month ago, to give you a very concrete example, a Russian air traffic control system threatened to shoot down French aircraft in the Black Sea when we were in a free international zone where we patrol
"The behavior of Russia in 2024 bears no relation to what we saw in 2022 and, obviously, before the aggression in Ukraine," the minister said. "It is explained by the fact that Russia is in difficulty on the battlefield in Ukraine."
Addendum
French air force pilots regularly patrol NATO's eastern flank as part of the 31-nation military alliance's efforts to bolster its defenses since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago.
The French flights include long-range patrols with AWACS surveillance aircraft. Flying high over the Black Sea coast, they use their powerful radar and other surveillance equipment to keep an eye on the Crimean peninsula, which was seized by Russia and annexed in 2014. Reconnaissance flights can spot missile launches, aerial bombardments and other military activity, the newspaper said.
Russian pilots, as noted, sometimes made it clear that they did not like being watched.
In 2022, a Russian fighter jet fired a missile alongside an RC-135 Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft of the British Air Force flying in international airspace over the Black Sea, the British government reported. In March 2023, the US government released a video showing a Russian fighter jet dumping fuel on a US Air Force reconnaissance drone. The drone crashed into the Black Sea.