By shooting down an American MQ-9 Reaper drone, the Russians acted outside the legal field. Since this aircraft has been making its standard flight along the same route for several years.

A military expert, retired colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, pilot-instructor Roman Svitan spoke about this on the air of Channel 24 . He stressed that such flights are stipulated in international laws. An MQ-9 Reaper crashed at sea on March 14, west of occupied Crimea. It was rammed by a Russian Su-27 fighter.

Everything will depend on diplomacy

Roman Svitan believes that if the parties – Russia and the United States – resolve the conflict through diplomacy, it will remain at the level of the so-called “border incident”. That is, the party that caused the damage will reimburse the cost without any other action.

“If, after certain investigative actions, the intentional action of the opposing side is proved, then the incident can be reclassified as an attack or another mechanism in the legal framework,” Svitan said.

Roman Svitan about the battle between Russian and US aviation over the Black Sea: watch the video

Russia will receive an asymmetrical blow

At the same time, the military expert assumes the further development of events “according to the standard well-established mechanism.” That is, the conflict will still be settled through diplomacy.

It’s just that somewhere in the ocean, at a depth of 200 meters, a propeller will be damaged near a Russian submarine – they will inflict such an asymmetric blow that no one will know about either, Svitan suggested.

Beating the MQ-9 Reaper: how it was

• As a result of the downing of the American MQ-9 Reaper drone by the Russian military, it became unusable. The journalists collected all the information and modeled how everything could happen.
• The MQ-9 Reaper, which monitors the situation in the waters, is one of the deadliest UAVs ever created. The US is trying to get it back as soon as possible.
• In turn, the Russian Defense Ministry on March 14 gave their comment on the events. One of the versions is that the US Air Force drone allegedly lost altitude itself and collided with the water surface, while Russian fighters seem to have nothing to do with it.
• Against all odds, the US will conduct reconnaissance flights in the Black Sea after the downing of the MQ-9 Reaper. In turn, ISW stressed that the incident will not cause a direct conflict between the United States and Russia.