A Russian fighter jet released a missile near an unarmed British spy plane patrolling in international airspace over the Black Sea on Sept. 29, UK defence minister Ben Wallace said, in an apparent accident and not a deliberate escalation of tensions.
Britain has condemned Russia for invading Ukraine and hit Moscow with punitive sanctions while giving military and civil support to Kyiv, and relations between the two countries are at historic lows.
Wallace told parliament he had expressed the government's concerns over the incident to Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, and in reply Russia on Oct. 10 said they had investigated and blamed it on a technical malfunction.
"We don't consider this a deliberate escalation by the Russians, our analysis would concur it was a malfunction," Wallace told parliament.
"However, it is a reminder of quite how dangerous things can be when you choose to use your fighters in the manner that the Russians have done over many periods of time."
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