A US Air Force strategic reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle was spotted over the Black Sea amid Ukraine's most recent attack on warships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
According to Flightradar, a RQ-4B Global Hawk drone with call sign FORTE10 took off from NATO's Sigonella naval air base on Sicily, Italy. The drone was subsequently spotted in the region of Russian southern territories at around 9:00 Moscow time.
The drone was circling above the coast of Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory. It approached a distance of about 180 kilometres in a straight line from Sevastopol and 100 kilometres from Sochi. The UAV was collecting intelligence data for nine hours traveling along the trajectory back and forth at an altitude of 15-16 kilometres at an average speed of 980 kilometres per hour.
The Russian Ministry of Defence earlier said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine attempted to attack warships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet with an unmanned boat. The incident occurred 237 kilometres southwest of the city of Sevastopol. The attack was unsuccessful as the Pytliviy and the Vasily Bykov patrol ships destroyed Ukraine's unmanned boats.
The frequency of NATO's spy missions has increased lately. NATO drones have repeatedly appeared near the Ukraine conflict zone, in the Kaliningrad enclave and in northern Russian territories.