Milley said he planned to talk with his Russian counterpart about the incident.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who spoke alongside Milley, said he had already spoken by phone with his Russian counterpart, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, about the incident that forced the MQ-9 Reaper to crash in the Black Sea.
The call marked the first time Austin has spoken with Shoigu since October, and the upcoming conversation will be the first time Milley has spoken to his counterpart since the same month.
“I just got off the phone with my Russian counterpart, Minister Shoigu,” Austin told reporters at the Pentagon. “As I’ve said repeatedly, it’s important that great powers be models of transparency and communication.”
He declined to offer details about the conversation, but said it’s important to keep lines of communication open to “help to prevent miscalculation going forward.”
Later Wednesday, the Russian defense ministry said the main focus of the call was the “causes and consequences” of the downing, which it claimed was “caused by the US actions of non-compliance with the flight restriction zone declared by the Russian Federation” established due to the war in Ukraine.
“It is noted that the U.S. flights of strategic unmanned aerial vehicles off the coast of Crimea are provocative in nature, which creates preconditions for the escalation of the situation in the Black Sea area,” according to the readout.
Milley, meanwhile, said he plans later Wednesday to talk to his counterpart, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces.
The four-star general said there were still questions as to whether Russia intended to strike the drone, but said the moments leading up to the crash were “intentional.”
“We know that the intercept was intentional. We know that the aggressive behavior was intentional,” Milley said. But whether the physical contact between the two was on purpose, “that remains to be seen,” he added.
Read the full report at digital-staging.thehill.com.
