France says Russian forces threatened to shoot down surveillance aircraft patrolling the Black Sea

By JOHN LEICESTER
Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — French defense officials say Russian forces threatened to shoot down a French surveillance aircraft patrolling in international airspace over the Black Sea. Speaking Thursday to broadcaster RTL, the French defense minister said Russia has adopted a “particularly aggressive” posture as its struggles to make headway with its invasion of Ukraine. The minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said Russian air traffic control threatened to shoot down a French aircraft that was patrolling over the Black Sea. A French military spokesman, Col. Pierre Gaudillière, said Lecornu was referring to an incident in mid-November that involved one of France’s four giant Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS, surveillance aircraft.