"Downed pilots" fight against drones

She said that they laid Kyiv to waste in "two or three days", "when they took Hostomel, when they completely disarmed Ukraine", destroying its main forces.

And then what was happening? For the whole year? Simonyan does ponder over her answer, "Then there was the war with NATO".

This is how the strategists of world politics are simply outlined in the minds of an average Russian, how the already half-forgotten term "special military operation,” coined by the "bunker old man," is erased and a new narrative of the "new reality" - war - is driven in.

“This is how the strategists of world politics are simply outlined in the minds of an average Russian, how the already half-forgotten term "special military operation,” coined by the "bunker old man," is erased and a new narrative of the "new reality" - war - is driven in”

Moreover, judging by the next speech of the same Simonyan, the war is catastrophic in its consequences. "Let me remind you," says the propagandist, "that during the Great Patriotic War (World War II) we were on the same side of the barricades - with Great Britain, and in a sense (?!) with France, and with the US, and the Lend-Lease should not be forgotten. We were all together. Against a handful (?!!) of powerful countries... Germany, Italy, Japan - but still, these are just 3 countries. Now it is the entire so-called Western world. And we have no allies."

In order to demonstrate that Putin and Russia are at war with NATO and the entire world, the US Air Force’s MQ-9 Reaper was shot down over the Black Sea. However, it was presented as a "sharp maneuvering" of the enemy drone, which caused the MQ-9 Reaper to go off "course towards the state border of the Russian Federation" and "collide with the water surface."

The US have their own version and promise to release the video of the incident soon.

Be that as it may, given the "absence of the presence" of NATO or US forces in Ukraine, the Reaper is quite suitable for confirming the "great domestic" war against the whole world and without allies. "People will swallow it" and continue the old "we can repeat it" song.

“Given the "absence of the presence" of NATO or US forces in Ukraine, the Reaper is quite suitable for confirming the "great domestic" war against the whole world and without allies. "People will swallow it" and continue the old "we can repeat it" song”

However, not everything is as simple as Moscow strategists and their propaganda staff would like it to be. First, Washington may lose patience with Russia's constant air rudeness. Here is a brief chronology of flight incidents in recent months. In the fall of 2022, American F-16s intercepted 2 Russian Tu-95 Bear-H bombers over Alaska. In February 2023, US fighter jets intercepted 4 Russian warplanes in the same area. The next day (February 14), the incident repeated itself, with 4 Russian warplanes again having to be shot down over Alaska. On the same day, 2 Dutch F-35 fighter jets intercepted a group of 3 Russian military aircraft near Poland. It was a Russian Il-20m Kut-A, which was accompanied by 2 Su-27 Flankers.

The MQ-9 Reaper incident, however, is much more serious. First of all, the Black Sea is not a deserted Alaska; despite the military activity of Russian missile carriers that fire at Ukrainian civilian troops, there is a lively civilian traffic. Moreover, it is through the Black Sea that the so-called "grain corridor" runs, bringing grain from Ukraine to the "starving people of Africa and Asia." After all, the Black Sea coast is a naval outpost of mostly NATO countries - Turkey, Bulgaria, and Romania.

“The Black Sea is not a deserted Alaska; despite the military activity of Russian missile carriers that fire at Ukrainian civilian troops, there is a lively civilian traffic. Moreover, it is through the Black Sea that the so-called "grain corridor" runs, bringing grain from Ukraine to the "starving people of Africa and Asia." After all, the Black Sea coast is a naval outpost of mostly NATO countries - Turkey, Bulgaria, and Romania”

Therefore, flying drones over its waters, whether they are American or someone else's, is a rather risky activity. And if Moscow makes such decisions, they should be seen as another raising of the stakes, a test of the waters: will there be a response or will the "frightened Westerners" chew and swallow, as usual?

I think that the plan of the "downed Kremlin pilots" can turn out very sadly for them. The incident with the MQ-9 Reaper happened exactly one day before the next - 10th - Ramstein. Today, defense ministers from more than 50 countries of the free world will meet again to coordinate resistance to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and "the final solution to the Russian issue" (to quote Putin). The meeting will take place in the context of finalizing discussions on providing Ukraine with combat aircraft. Before heading to Brussels, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin received a letter from 8 senators from both parties with further arguments in favor of giving Kyiv F-16 fighters.

It would have been quite natural to see Sergei Shoigu's signature on this letter. After all, he did sign it - by shooting down an American drone over the Black Sea...

About the author. Ihor Hulyk is a journalist and Espreso’s editor.

The editorial board does not always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.