‘Incidents Happen’: General Milley Won’t Consider Russian Jet Colliding With US Drone Act of War

General Mark Milley dismissed the threat of a Russian jet colliding with a U.S. drone on Tuesday, refusing to label it an “act of war.”

The incident took place over the Black Sea on Tuesday. A Russian Su-27 fighter jet hit a U.S military drone, rendering the device “unflyable.”

U.S. Air Force General James Hecker called the event an “…unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash.”

On Wednesday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Milley addressed the incident during a press conference.

Milley said he has a scheduled call with his Russian counterpart General Valery Gerasimov.

“Was it intentional or not — don’t know yet. We know that the intercept was intentional. We know that the aggressive behavior was intentional. We also know it was very unprofessional and very unsafe,” Milley said.

“…There’s no question that that part of it’s intentional, the actual physical contact of the aircraft that I’m not so sure. So we’ll have to figure that out, we’re not positive of that yet,” he added.

“As far as an active war goes, I’m not gonna — I’m not gonna go there. Incidents happen. Clearly, we do not seek armed conflict with Russia. And I believe that at this point we should investigate this incident and move on from there. But we will continue to exercise our rights in international airspace,” Milley said.

The White House has called the Russian plane’s intercept of the drone “reckless.”

Watch above via PBS.