Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said that Russia will try to retrieve an American drone from the bottom of the sea, which crashed there yesterday after an unsuccessful interception by Russian fighter jets.
Source. This was reported by the BBC.
"I don't know whether we will be able to get it or not, but it is necessary to do it, and we will do it for sure. I hope, of course, for success," Patrushev said in an interview with Russian state TV.
The day before, Pentagon spokesman General Patrick Ryder said that according to his information, the Russian side was unable to retrieve the remains of the drone. However, he did not say where exactly the incident occurred and did not specify whether the American side would try to raise it.
According to analysts, warships or civilian vessels are often used to raise a large drone from the seabed, as was the case in 2018, when the RQ-4 Global Hawk drone was raised from the bottom of the sea off the coast of Spain with the help of the USNS Arctic.
However, shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Turkey closed the passage through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits to warships.
The maximum depth of the Black Sea is 2210 meters. The exact coordinates of the drone's crash were not disclosed, but according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the depths south of Crimea, where the UAV fell, exceed a thousand meters. This is much deeper than a diver can withstand even with powerful special equipment.
Background. As a reminder, in response to the US accusations, the Russian Defense Ministry said that it had not touched the American drone and that it drowned on its own.