French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu blasted Russia for its ‘unacceptable and unprofessional’ behaviour after a near-miss in the air over the Mediterranean Sea on Sunday
Russian fighter jet ‘aggressively harasses’ French Reaper drone
This is the hair-raising moment an ‘aggressive’ Russian fighter jet comes perilously close to a NATO-member drone over the Mediterranean Sea.
A video clip shared by French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu on his X (formerly Twitter) page shows black and white camera footage from an MQ-9 predator drone flying over the sea on Sunday. Suddenly a blur of light appears that appears to be heading towards the drone.
The footage then switches to colour and a Russian SU-35 fighter jet is seen flying dangerously close to the drone before passing out of view. Lecornu claimed it was the third time that the plane had flown close by the drone and slammed Russia for acting unprofessionally.
A translation of Lecornu’s post read: “On Sunday, a Russian SU-35 fighter jet behaved dangerously towards a French Reaper drone, on a surveillance mission in international airspace over the eastern Mediterranean. Three successive passes in close proximity, which could have caused the drone to lose control, attest to a desire to restrict free air traffic in common areas.”
He added that France remains undeterred and will carry on defending its freedom to navigate across the sea and in the air. “An intentional, unprofessional and aggressive action that is not acceptable. France will continue to act to defend freedom of navigation in international air and maritime spaces,” Lecornu concluded.
Russia has yet to comment on the incident but this is not the first time that the country has seemingly acted dangerously towards NATO aircrafts in the sky. In May 2023, a Sukhoi Su-35 aircraft performed ‘aggressive manoueuvres’ against a Polish fighter jet over the Black Sea, causing it to lose control.
The Polish border force said at the time that the Russian fighter jet didn’t make radio contact as it approached the border guard plane three times. It failed to keep to the “required safety distance”, the agency added, and the Polish L-410 Turbolet ran into turbulence before the crew “lost control of the aircraft” and began to plummet.
A spokesman for the government in Warsaw, Piotr Muller, branded the close call as a “planned provocation by Russia.” The Polish aircraft managed to land safely in Romania shortly after the incident.
Russia said earlier this year that they ensure every flight they carry out is compliant with international rules of airspace. “All flights by Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft are carried out in strict compliance with international rules on the use of airspace,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement in January.
