Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, left, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attend the talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar Assad at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, March 15, 2023 (Vladimir Gerdo, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Any action that provokes a conflict between two nuclear powers would have extremely dangerous implications, and the US cannot help but see this, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, commenting on the situation with the downed American drone MQ-9 in the airspace above the Black Sea.

"Any incidents that provoke a clash between two great powers, two nuclear powers, the largest in the world, always give very serious risks. It [the United States] cannot fail to understand this," Lavrov told Rossiya 24.

Lavrov then slammed the US's disregard for the flight restrictions over the Black Sea coastline regions which were implemented since the start of the war in Ukraine. Consequently, he assessed the drone incident to be a provocation.

"It [the United States] completely ignores the fact that after the start of a special military operation, our military declared the relevant areas of the Black Sea, adjacent in certain places, as areas with a restricted status for the use of any aircraft," Lavrov added.

"Such a defiant ignorance of this objective fact, of course, suggests that the US side is constantly trying to look for some kind of provocation to escalate its confrontational approaches," Lavrov stressed.

"This is bad because they have constantly declared that they are a responsible power, interested in strategic stability. But words are at odds with deeds,"

Yesterday, the US European Command issued a statement saying that "a Russian Su-27 aircraft struck the propeller of a U.S. MQ-9 drone, causing U.S. forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters."

White House Spokesperson John Kirby indicated that while there have been other such intercepts, this one was noteworthy because it was "unsafe and unprofessional" and caused the downing of a US aircraft.

Additionally, a NATO official said that the alliance's top military commander has informed allies about the incident.

Later, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) encouraged the US to shoot down Russian planes if they “ever get near another US asset flying in international waters".