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According to Russian media reports on June 25, Major General Popov, deputy director of the Russian Mediation Center for the Parties to the Syrian conflict, issued a statement:
"From 13:45 to 13:53 today, at an altitude of 7,000 to 8,000 meters above the province of Homs, an MQ-9 Reaper UAV of the 'International Alliance' made a dangerous approach with a Su-34 aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces that was routinely flying."
And Major General Popov said that in the face of such a dangerous situation, Russia took measures to avoid collisions.
At a time when relations between Russia and the United States are so tense, dangerous proximity and malicious collisions are almost inseparable. If Russia does not respond in time, it will cause catastrophe. This move by the United States is undoubtedly a provocation against Russia, but as we all know, the Russian fighting nation has always been unaccustomed to the United States, so how will Russia respond this time, or what kind of countermeasures will it make?
Syria's dilemma
The place where the incident took place in the province of Homs is on the territory of Syria. Syria, as the leader of the Middle East, has recently stepped up its crackdown on terrorists and armed factions in the Homs Desert and along the Euphrates River, with the aim of maintaining regional security.
Syria is a country located in the western part of Asia, bordering Israel and Lebanon, which brings to mind the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is actually part of the Middle East conflict in Central Europe. So what role does Syria play in this?
After the start of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Syria hopes to maintain a neutral attitude, not wanting to provoke Israel and the United States, but also not wanting to offend Iran, Lebanon, Palestine and other countries in the Middle East.
However, Israel and the United States do not seem to be buying it, and the location of the Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy is precisely in Syria. And the frequent civil wars in Syria have also caused turmoil in the whole country, and in 2011~2015, about 200,000 people died in the civil war in Syria.
As a result, Syria is still relatively miserable in the Middle East, and it can be seen from news reports that this part of Syria has been fighting, but more often than not, others are fighting it, and Syria has little room to fight back.
Syria is Russia's only ally in the Middle East. When Syria was sanctioned by the United States, it was Russia that stepped in to help it, and the friendship between the two countries has been formed ever since. For its part, Syria needs to rely on Russia to resist US sanctions while leaving a place in the Middle East. For Russia, Syria is located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, and its friendship with Syria does not isolate Russia from its support in the Middle East, and Russia may even have access to the Mediterranean, even if Russia's navy is not its advantage.
Syria's intensified crackdown on terrorists and armed factions in the Homs desert and along the Euphrates River is also a joint operation with Russian forces, which are likely to have received or are receiving US support due to the United States' frequent involvement in the Middle East.
However, the United States does not care about speculation. Russia's friendship with Syria has led to the deployment of fighter jets to patrol in Syria, and the United States has begun to make a big fuss, sending MQ-9 Reaper drones to actively create friction with Russia.
MQ-9 UAV
MQ-9 'Reaper' UAV, as the signature of American UAVs, is mostly used for surveillance and reconnaissance compared to traditional UAVs, and there are attack types in its types. Back in 2016, the MQ-9 drone killed the Taliban's supreme leader, Akhtar Mohammed al-Mansour, by firing a missile. Therefore, its aggressiveness needs not be questioned.
Today, however, the MQ-9 drone does not seem to be very scary, as the Houthi rebels in Yemen have publicly announced that they have knocked out several MQ-9 drones and released videos. The Houthis in Yemen are not even recognized, and their most advanced equipment is obtained by disarming the enemy. The fact that this one armed group can defeat the Americans' ace drones makes people doubt the combat power of the MQ-9 drones.
The fighter on this patrol of Russia is their Su-34 aircraft, which has been widely used in Russia. Even in the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, it is indispensable, in late February this year, Russia used the Su-34 to drop 151 gliding guided bombs on the Ukrainian front line in one day. And this behavior is also quite controversial, whether it is overkill to use such a powerful fighter just to drop bombs, and the Su-34 has also been shot down several times because of the bomb-throwing mission, which makes Russia quite distressed.
In contrast, the Su-34, as an authentic fighter, is undoubtedly in an advantageous position against the MQ-9 UAV of the US military, but Russia does not dare to do it lightly. Why is that?
The provocation of the US side against the Russian side
In fact, there are other fighters behind the MQ-9 drone to protect it, including two F-15 fighters, two F-16 fighters and two French Rafale fighters, which are undoubtedly warning Russia that if Russia fires, it will be shot down.
Even if the Su-34 has great skills, it is impossible to retreat after shooting down the MQ-9 drone, and it is not cost-effective to exchange a genuine fighter with a drone, and it will be very difficult for Russia to be charged with creating friction and taking the initiative to start a war.
There are three main reasons why the United States provokes Russia. First of all, the Russian-Ukrainian war is in a white-hot stage, and Russia certainly does not want to open up the battlefield again in other regions, especially in the chaos in the Middle East, where it has few supporters, and the chaos in the Middle East actually has little to do with Russia.
Second, the United States hopes that the more chaotic the Middle East is, the better, so that they can take advantage of the chaos to gain the rights and interests of the Middle East. So it is possible that the armed factions in Syria and Russia are among the militants assisted by the United States.
In the end, it was the retaliation of the Americans. Not long ago, Russia drove its nuclear submarine to the doorstep of the United States, and Cuba is only a few hundred kilometers away from the US mainland, and Russia can be said to have reached the range of attacking the US mainland. How can this keep the United States from being in a hurry?
Resources:
"Russian side: "Reaper" drone "dangerously approaching" Russian fighters" reference news
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