The Wall Street Journal published an editorial calling on President Joe Biden’s administration to respond to the recent incident involving the US MQ-9 Reaper drone by sent long-range missiles into Ukraine.
Explaining such a position, the publication notes that the decision of the Russian military to attack the American drone in neutral airspace shows the Kremlin’s intention to continue its aggressive actions.
The drone An MQ-9 Reaper crashed in the Black Sea near Crimea, after being intercepted by a Russian fighter jet. U.S. officials say the Russian Air Force jet dropped fuel on the U.S. drone and then collided with its propeller.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claims that there was no collision and that the device went down on its own.
“Some have warned that this episode is a reminder of the risk of war between the US and Russia – and that’s why they should withdraw support for Ukraine. But the drone is operated in international airspaceand Putin wants to turn the Black Sea into his private lake,” writes the Wall Street Journal.
Russia may be escalating, but this situation confirms that Putin is the aggressor and his ambitions are not limited to Ukraine.
Biden now has more reason to take the action “he should have taken long ago: give Ukraine the weapons to defeat. The Wall Street Journal lists tactical missiles that can strike deep behind Russian lines, as well as the MQ-9 Reaper drones themselves.
The authors of the editorial claim that one of the reasons for Washington’s refusal to provide such machines to Ukraine is the fear that they will fall into the hands of the Russians and they will steal the relevant technologies. Now, however, the Russian military is trying to rescue the remains of the drones from the Black Sea, and the Pentagon claims that nothing valuable was left in them after the US action.
“This shows that the risks associated with providing the MQ-9 to Ukraine are acceptable — and offset by the benefits of a platform that can stay in the air for days and perform long-range reconnaissance,” the article said.
The authors continue: “The Biden administration has built its policy toward Ukraine on its own fears about how the Russian president will react, but the drone crash is the latest evidence that Putin is ready to take any riskswhich he thinks he can get away with.”
Top US military: There is nothing of value on the drone that fell into the Black Sea
The drone lies at a depth of more than a kilometer
“Biden may prefer to let it go without consequence and be content with his own restraint. But he won’t like the decisions he’ll have to make if Russia escalates and shoots down a plane flown by American military pilots,” the newspaper concluded.
