MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/. A US-led coalition’s MQ-9 Reaper drone dangerously approached a Russian fighter jet in Syria’s Homs governorate, Yury Popov, deputy chief of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Parties in Syria (a division of the Russian defense ministry), said on Tuesday.

"From 1:45 p.m. to 1:53 p.m. Moscow time (10:45 a.m. - 10:53 a.m. GMT) on June 25, a coalition’s MQ-9 Reaper reconnaissance combat unmanned aerial vehicle dangerously approached a Russian Su-34 plane making a planned flight over Syria at an altitude of from 7,000 to 8,000 meters," he said, adding that the Russian pilot demonstrated high professionalism and took timely measures to prevent a collision.

According to Popov, a pair of the coalition’s F-15, a pair of F-16 and a pair of Rafale fighter jets violated Syria’s airspace in the al-Tanf area, across which international air routes run, six times during the day. Apart from that, in his words, four violations of the deconfliction protocols of December 9, 2019 linked with the flights by the US-led coalition unmanned aerial vehicles were reported in Syria in the past 24 hours. One Syrian solder was wounded as a result of sniper fire at the positions of Syrian government troops near the settlement of Kafer Nebel in the Idlib governorate.