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Russia Say U.S. Drone Crashed by Itself, Untouched by Russian Fighter Jets

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Russia’s Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov said on Tuesday that, contrary to the Pentagon’s account, Russian fighter jets did not shoot at or touch an American drone lost over international waters in Europe.

Antonov, and the Russian Defense Ministry in a separate statement, condemned the drone for allegedly being over territory that Russia had designated “for the purpose of the special military operation,” meaning the ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to Moscow, the drone, an American MQ-9 ‘Reaper’ surveillance and attack unmanned vehicle, was flying near occupied Crimea, Ukraine. Ukraine has been under Russian control since leader Vladimir Putin colonized the peninsula in 2014.

The American Department of Defense’s European Command (EUCOM) announced in a statement on Tuesday that it had lost the Reaper drone because of “unsafe and unprofessional” actions by Russian Sukhoi 27 fighter jets. Both Russian and American authorities agree that the fighter jets did not shoot at the drone, but EUCOM accused the jets of striking the drone.

“Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9,” U.S. Air Force Gen. James B. Hecker, the commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa, said in a statement. “In fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash.”
“This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional,” EUCOM asserted, describing it as the latest in a “pattern of dangerous actions” in response to American forces in allegedly international airspace.

American officials described the drone as being on a “routine” mission in international waters.

Antonov, who Washington summoned in ire on Tuesday, issued a statement through the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Telegram account on Tuesday denying that the Russian fighter jets had acted in any dangerous way.

“The American UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] that was moving deliberately and provocatively towards the Russian territory with its transponders turned off violated the boundaries of the temporary airspace regime established for the special military operation,” Antonov said, “which was communicated to the [sic] all concerned users of international airspace in accordance with international norms.”

“At the same time, the Russian fighters scrambled to identify the intruder did not use on-board weapons and did not come into contact with the UAV,” Antonov continued. “The unacceptable actions of the United States military in the close proximity to our borders are cause for concern. We are well aware of the missions such reconnaissance and strike drones are used for.”

Antonov condemned the U.S. military for allegedly staging similar flights in international waters on a “daily” basis.

INDIAN SPRINGS, NV - NOVEMBER 17: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been reviewed by the U.S. Military prior to transmission.) An MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) flies by during a training mission at Creech Air Force Base on November 17, 2015 in Indian Springs, Nevada. The Pentagon has plans to expand combat air patrols flights by remotely piloted aircraft by as much as 50 percent over the next few years to meet an increased need for surveillance, reconnaissance and lethal airstrikes in more areas around the world. (Photo by Isaac Brekken/Getty Images)

File/ An MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) flies by during a training mission at Creech Air Force Base on November 17, 2015 in Indian Springs, Nevada. (Isaac Brekken/Getty Images)

“What do they do thousands of miles away from the United States? The answer is obvious – they gather intelligence which is later used by the Kiev regime [the elected government of Ukraine] to attack our armed forces and territory,” Antonov’s statement read.

The Russian Defense Ministry did not deny the American drone crashed, but claimed it did so on its own, with no intervention by Moscow.

“As the Russian Defense Ministry specified, the drone went into an uncontrolled flight as a result of an abrupt maneuver, lost its altitude and crashed into the water,” the Russian news agency Tass reported, repeating Antonov’s assertion that “Russian fighter jets did not employ their onboard armaments, did not enter into contact with the drone and safely returned to their home airfield.”

While reporting on the Foreign Ministry’s remarks, Tass also quoted a Russian Air Force pilot justifying any intervention to prevent the American aircraft from flying into Russian airspace.

“When a drone flies in such a zone [Russia’s exclusive economic area], especially without any identification marks, we are required to identify it as an aerial target,” Major General Vladimir Popov told Tass, claiming that the Reaper drone is not easily identifiable and Russian forces must treat it as a threat even before they fully figure out what it is.

“We must not consider a priori whether this is a recon aircraft or something else and so we needed to be certain. If it seemed to us that it was heading for our borders and we wanted to prevent this, we buzzed it to let it know that it might violate our sovereign space,” Popov suggested.
Despite the confrontational language, Antonov described his conversation at the State Department following his summoning as “constructive.” The Russian ambassador met with Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried.

“We have exchanged our remarks on this issue because we have some differences in the way it happened today, but it seems to me it was a constructive conversation on the issue,” Antonov said following the meeting, according to the pro-Moscow outlet Sputnik. “I have heard her remarks. I hope she had understood what I mentioned.”

Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.

NewsGuard, Recipient of $750k Pentagon Contract, Denies It Is ‘Government Funded’

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NewsGuard, the establishment “news-rating” project that presents itself to the public as an impartial authority on the trustworthiness of news publishers, is telling reporters that it is not “government funded” — despite receiving a $750,000 contract from the Department of Defense to track “misinformation.”

The claim was made in an email to Matt Taibbi, a Twitter Files reporter who testified at a landmark House Judiciary Committee hearing on the topic of government-backed censorship last week.

Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, co-CEOs of NewsGuard

Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, co-CEOs of NewsGuard (D Dipasupil and Stephen Chernin /Getty)

Banks

Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) (Joshua Roberts/Getty Images)

In the email, NewsGuard co-founder and CEO Gordon Crovitz said the organization was a “business with many licensees” that pay for access to its and that the Pentagon is just one of those licensees.

Via Twitter:

Matt:

I noticed with interest and surprise how you referred to NewsGuard in your congressional testimony on Thursday. There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about NewsGuard and our work.

During the hearing, NewsGuard was inaccurately described as “U.S. government funded.” Unlike other entities mentioned during the hearing, we are not a non-profit funded by government grants. We are a business with many licensees paying to access our proprietary data, including government entities that pay to license our data. These licenses are only for access to our data and are entirely unrelated to our rating of news publishers.

For example, as is public, our work for the Pentagon’s Cyber Command is focused on the identification and analysis of information operations targeting the U.S. and its allies conducted by hostiles governments, including Russia and China. Our analysts alert officials in the U.S. and in other democracies, including Ukraine, about new false narratives targeting America and its allies, and we provide an understanding of how this disinformation spreads online. We are proud of our work countering Russian and Chinese disinformation on behalf of Western democracies.

As Breitbart News previously reported, the $750,000 Pentagon contract was for NewsGuard’s “misinformation fingerprints” project, described by the organization as “a catalogue of known hoaxes, falsehoods and misinformation narratives that are spreading online.”

In 2022, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told the Pentagon to preserve its documents related to NewsGuard, expressing concern at the organization’s “extreme partisan bias.”

In a comment to Breitbart News, NewsGuard General Manager Matt Skibinski dismissed concerns over NewsGuard’s dealing with the government, stating:

Describing NewsGuard as a “U.S. government funded entity” is like saying Verizon is government-funded because some government agencies pay for its phone services.

NewsGuard is a for-profit business. We sell licenses to clients to access our data about misinformation and disinformation sources and narratives. While most of our licensees are in the private sector, some government entities license our data about state-sponsored disinformation campaigns targeting Western democracies from places like China, Venezuela, and Russia. To be clear, none of this work has anything to do with our work rating news website credibility.

We are proud that our data is useful in countering Chinese and Russian disinformation on behalf of Western democracies.

Breitbart News will continue to report on NewsGuard and the “misinformation” industry.

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.

‘Divisive and Cruel’: Pentagon Could Still Kick Out 16,000 Unvaccinated Troops Despite Voided Vaccine Mandate

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The Pentagon said in a recent letter to lawmakers that it could kick out as many as 16,000 unvaccinated troops, despite its coronavirus vaccine mandate no longer being in effect.

The letter, from the Under Secretary of Defense for Military Personnel Gilbert Cisneros, said that despite the mandate no longer being in effect, military officials “continue to review cases on an individual basis to determine appropriate action” for troops who did not get vaccinated and did not request an exemption.

Gilbert Ray Cisneros Jr., nominee to be Defense undersecretary for personnel and readiness, prepares to testify during a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing for Defense Department nominees in Dirksen Building on Tuesday, July 13, 2021. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

That would apply to approximately 16,000 unvaccinated troops, according to the letter, which revealed that approximately 69,000 troops remained unvaccinated, but 53,000 requested some kind of exemption, either religious, medical, or administrative.

The remaining 16,000 could still be subject to separation, according to the Pentagon — despite Republicans forcing the administration to rescind the mandate late last year via the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act.

Military Personnel Subcommittee Chairman Jim Banks (R-IN) slammed the Pentagon’s policy to punish troops who did not apply for an exemption.

UNITED STATES - NOVEMBER 15: Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., arrives for the House Republicans leadership elections in the Capitol Visitor Center on Tuesday, November 15, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) arrives for the House Republicans’ leadership elections in the Capitol Visitor Center on Tuesday, November 15, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

“It’s incredibly divisive and cruel to fire patriotic service members for refusing to comply with a partisan and harmful rule that no longer exists. To me, the only explanation is that the Biden administration wants to purge conservative service members from the military,” Banks said.

During a recent hearing, Banks questioned Cisneros on the point of punishing service members over a mandate that is no longer in effect. Cisneros said it was because the mandate was a “lawful order” at the time it was made and that troops who remained unvaccinated but did not seek an exemption “disobeyed a lawful order.”

“Those who refused the vaccine and did not put in a request for an accommodation refused a lawful order,” Cisneros replied.

Banks pressed him on what the point was of enforcing a rescinded mandate.

Cisneros said, “In order to maintain good order and discipline, it’s very important that our service members follow orders when they are lawful.”

However, the DOD has never publicly answered questions as to whether or not the vaccine mandate was lawful.

As Breitbart News previously reported, the DOD can only mandate a vaccine approved for emergency use authorization if the defense secretary requests and receives a waiver from the president. Instead, then-civilian defense official Terry Adirim wrote a memo claiming the EUA-vaccine and FDA-approved vaccine were “interchangeable.”

The DOD has dodged whether or not Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin requested and received a waiver from President Joe Biden.

Follow Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong on Twitter, Truth Social, or on Facebook.