By Trevor Hunnicutt and Doina Chiacu
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden was briefed on Tuesday about an incident over the Black Sea in which a Russian Su-27 fighter jet struck the propeller of a U.S. military “Reaper” surveillance drone, White House spokesman John Kirby said.
While there have been other such intercepts, Kirby said, this one was noteworthy because it was “unsafe and unprofessional” and caused the downing of a U.S. aircraft. “So it’s unique in that regard,” Kirby said.
“The State Department will be speaking directly with their Russian counterparts, and expressing our concerns over this unsafe and unprofessional intercept,” he said.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Franklin Paul; Editing by Chris Reese)