MOSCOW, March 15. /TASS/. There have been no summit Russian-US exchanges following the incident involving a US drone over the Black Sea, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that President Vladimir Putin was briefed on the situation.

"No, there have been no [top-level] exchanges," Peskov told the media on Wednesday.

He was surprised at the question whether Putin had been briefed on the incident: "It is at least strange: how do you imagine a situation in which the head of state, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, may not be briefed about the incident? Of course, this cannot happen. Of course, he was briefed," Peskov stated.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Russia’s Aerospace Force spotted a US MQ-9 drone in the area of the Crimean Peninsula on Tuesday morning. The drone’s transponders were turned off "in violation of the boundaries of the area where temporary airspace rules were established for the purpose of conducting a special military operation and brought to the attention of all users of international airspace and published in accordance with international standards," the Defense Ministry said.

The Defense Ministry added that the drone, as a result of sharp maneuvering, went out of control, lost altitude and hit the water surface. Russian fighter jets did not use weapons. Nor did they contact the unmanned aerial vehicle. The planes returned safely to their base airfield.

According to the European Command of the US Armed Forces, one of the two Russian Su-27 jets hit the propeller of the US drone, thus causing its crash in the Black Sea. US President Joe Biden was notified of the incident. The Russian ambassador to Washington was summoned to the Department of State.