US drone conducted reconnaissance near Russia's Crimea: Sputnik

A US drone has reportedly conducted a reconnaissance flight off the Crimean Peninsula despite multiple calls by Russia that the Pentagon halt such operations near the country's territory.

Russia's Sputnik news agency cited the monitoring resource, PlaneRadar, as saying that the US Global Hawk drone had carried out a reconnaissance operation over the Donbass region in Crimea and the Black Sea coast on Friday.

“The US Air Force RQ-4B-40 Global Hawk with a tail number 11-2048 and call sign FORTE10 took off from a NATO air base on the island of Sicily, monitored the demarcation line in Donbass, and then embarked on a reconnaissance flight along the Russian Black Sea coast,” the Sputnik news agency said.

Relations between Moscow and the rest of Europe have deteriorated since 2014, when Crimea rejoined Russia following a referendum whereby more than 90 percent of participants voted in favor of separating from Ukraine. The US brands the reunification as annexation of Ukrainian land by Russia, which strongly rejects the allegation.

In siding with Ukraine, the European Union has followed Washington's lead in leveling several rounds of sanctions against Moscow.

The RQ-4 Global Hawk is a strategic reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by a subsidiary of the American Northrop Grumman corporation.

The Global Hawk is one of the most expensive pieces of equipment in the US arsenal with an estimated price tag of around $220 million.

The unmanned US aircraft was taken down by Iran's indigenous Khordad 3 air defense system in June after it had breached the country's airspace and begun gathering intelligence and spying.

Iran’s IRGC force shoots down intruding US spy drone

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps shoots down an intruding American spy drone in the country’s southern coastal province of Hormozgan.

Information attack on Russian military leadership

On Friday, the Russian Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tsalikov said the ministry has information that several countries are preparing an information attack to target the country's armed forces leadership.

"Today, we have reliable information that some countries are involved in coordinated activities via particular media to discredit the Russian government agencies, politicians, public figures and journalists. At the same time, we are expecting soon an intensification of information pressure on the leadership of the Russian Armed Forces at all levels," Tsalikov said in an interview with the Russian military's official newspaper, Krasnaya Zvezda.

The Russian official added that people behind the supposed attack are going to use the "dirty tools of information war" and that the Russian military leadership is ready to counter the attack with "honest and transparent work.”

Tsalikov also elaborated on how information "has turned into a powerful weapon in the right hands and with sufficient resources."

Last week, the Russian Armed Forces said they had detected 34 foreign jets that were engaged in reconnaissance activities close to Russia's airspace.

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