Without a chance for dialogue: As Russia threatened to knock down in the Black Sea E-3 Sentry Air Force France

The Awacs aircraft of the French Air Force carried out a mission within NATO in order to monitor the Russian forces in eastern Ukraine and Crimea. France's Defense Minister Sebastian Lecorton acknowledged that in November 2023, the Russians threatened to knock down in the sky above the Black Sea one of the four E-3 Sentry aircraft of the French Air Force, which at that time performed a reconnaissance mission.

Such an incident means that Paris does not intend to return to dialogue with Moscow, and cooperation with Kiev has become a priority. This was reported on March 1 by Defense 24. According to Lecorton, during the flight of the French aircraft E-3 Sentry in the international zone above the Black Sea, Russian air traffic controllers threatened to knock down the plane. The French pilot immediately turned and left the flight area.

"It is important to note that the mission was carried out within the framework of NATO for the purpose of exploring the Russian forces in eastern Ukraine and in the Crimea," journalists write. In this regard, the French General Staff Pierre Pierre Godlier suggested that the incident occurred during the development of the French-Jrimean cooperation.

Thus, it could be a symbolic reaction of Russia to numerous initiatives of France, aimed at strengthening its presence in the Caucasus and the development of bilateral relations with Armenia. The authors of the publication noted that the incident in the Black Sea is not a single case. A similar situation occurred on September 29, 2022, when the Russian fighter released a rocket towards the British Boeing RC-135, which performed surveillance tasks.

Then they were talking about the launch of a rocket towards the British aircraft, and then the head of the country's Defense Ministry Ben Volles stated that London was accepting a version of the Russian side about technical malfunctions. In addition, in March 2023, the Russian fighter dropped the fuel on the American MQ-9 Reaper drone, which patrolled the Black Sea basin. As a result, the US UAV lost its control and fell on the water surface.

"Russia is trying to demonstrate that it can take offensive actions against NATO countries. At the same time, it is aware that Ukraine's support is growing and therefore tries to neutralize the threat from observation missions," the observers emphasized. We will remind, on February 26, French President Emmanuel Macron stated that NATO allowed to send their troops to Ukraine.

Commenting on the words of the French leader, the Presidential Presidential President Dmitry Peskov said that if the Alliance's military appears in Ukraine, a direct armed conflict between the Russian Federation and the NATO bloc will become inevitable. Western media also responded to Macron's statement. Politico writes that the words of France leader that NATO may have to send soldiers to Ukraine "have achieved the exact opposite" result and have been perceived with criticism.