JAKARTA - A US reconnaissance drone that crashed over the Black Sea after being intercepted by the Russian military is likely to be destroyed and will be difficult to find given the water depth in the region, the top US general said on Wednesday.
In the first US-Russian live incident since the Ukraine war began, a Russian Su-27 jet crashed into an MQ-9 drone propeller, leaving it inoperable, the Pentagon said, exacerbating the tense relationship between Washington and Moscow.
Russia's Ministry of Defense blamed the "sharp maneuver" carried out by the drone for the crash and said the jet had not made contact.
"The plane may have sunk to a significant depth, so recovery operations from a technical point of view will be very difficult," said Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley.
He warned it would take several days before the United States knew for sure the size of the debris in waters as deep as 4,000 to 5,000 feet (1,219 to 1,524 meters).
Meanwhile, Russia said on Wednesday it would try to retrieve the wreckage of the drone, but appeared to recognize the challenges.
"I don't know if we will be able to take it or not, but it has to be done. And we will definitely do it. I hope, of course, it works," Kremlin Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev told Rossiya-1 TV channel.
General Milley said the United States had taken steps to prevent the loss of sensitive intelligence information if the drone was discovered by Russia.
"We are quite sure that anything of value is no longer worth," the army general said.
Earlier, White House spokesman John Kirby said in an interview with ABC that if Russia manages to find the plane, US authorities have taken precautions to ensure their ability to obtain useful intelligence will be limited.
The incident over international waters on Tuesday is a reminder of the risk of direct confrontation between the United States and Russia over Ukraine, which Moscow was invasing more than a year ago and is backed by Western allies with intelligence and weapons.
General Milley said it was clear that the interception and interference of the Russian drone was intentional. However, it is unclear whether Russian pilots intend to crash their plane into MQ-9, a move that could also endanger Russian aircraft.
"Was it intentional or not? Don't know yet," the senior general said.
Earlier on Wednesday, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the incident was likely unintentional.
"I think the current best judgment is that it may not be intentional. This may be the result of the in-depth inability of one of the Russian pilots," Price said.
Following the incident, General Milley spoke with his Russian partner, General Chief of Staff General Valery Gerasimov, in a phone call that rarely happened on Wednesday, the Pentagon said.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin also spoke with his Russian partner Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday after the incident, but he declined to provide any details about his phone call at a news conference.
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