Pentagon officials say they don't yet know whether a Russian fighter jet intended to collide with a U.S. drone, forcing it to crash down into the Black Sea.

Gen. Mark Milley: "We know that the intercept was intentional. We know that the aggressive behavior was intentional." pic.twitter.com/TrVTl21QvY

— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 15, 2023

It almost looks as though the drone incident with Russia was staged in order to get people to start demanding deescalation.

RT:

The US is weighing the benefits and risks of drone flights over the Black Sea after losing an unmanned aircraft there while being chased by Russian interceptors, CNN reported on Thursday, citing sources.

On Tuesday, Washington claimed that two Russian Su-27 fighters dumped fuel on a MQ-9 Reaper drone conducting a reconnaissance flight in the area, with one jet later colliding with the US aircraft.

Moscow’s Ministry of Defense, however, dismissed the accusation, insisting that its interceptors had neither come into contact with the Reaper nor fired a weapon, saying that the drone crashed due to “sharp maneuvers.”

Several officials have told CNN that the US is now “weighing the costs and benefits” of further drone operations. At the same time, Washington has not entirely halted flights while the review is underway, the report says, and another Reaper was sent to monitor Russian forces searching for the debris.

I don’t know if the US is going to deescalate the situation in the Ukraine. I am not a wizard and never claimed to be some kind of predictor. Sometimes my critics act like I did that, but I’ve never claimed to be a predictor. I’ve always just looked at the information, and said what the possibilities are, and I always give multiple possibilities.

Right now, there are people in Washington – powerful people – saying that because the Russian economy did not collapse as a result of Western pressure, and because Russia has not really had too much difficulty militarily repelling the full might of NATO, that the situation is FUBAR and that it’s just a waste of resources.

The battle for #Bakhmut continues. Ukraine is keeping Russian forces in this city and inflicting very heavy losses on the Wagner Group and Russian regular military personnel, said Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States. "#Ukraine remains strong" pic.twitter.com/esE0ZBv6op

— Matt