US Army European Command public This Thursday images of the incident between a Russian fighter “Su-27” and an American drone over the waters of the Black Sea. The unmanned ship crashed.
As reported by the command USAthe images show the moment in which “a Russian plane carried out an unsafe and unprofessional interception of a US Air Force ‘MQ-9’ drone in international airspace over the Black Sea, on 14 November. March”.
VIDEO: Two #Russian Su-27s conducted an unsafe & unprofessional intercept w/a @usairforce intelligence, surveillance & reconnaissance unmanned MQ-9 operating w/i international airspace over the #blacksea March 14. https://t.co/gMbKYNtIeQ @HQUSAFEAFAF @DeptofDefense @BORN pic.twitter.com/LB3BzqkBpY
— US European Command (@US_EUCOM) March 16, 2023
According to a report from the Spanish agency efethe US command also provided a storyboard of how the incident occurred in the Black Sea, in which there was another Russian fighter. The fact has increased the tension between Washington and Moscow, and has as a background the war in Ukraine.
According to the information described by the source, the event begins when a Russian plane approaches the rear of the American “MQ-9”. Shortly after, the Kremlin aircraft begins to release fuel in its path, and as it does so, it flies over the drone.
In just a few minutes, the Russian “Su-27” begins a second approach towards the “MQ-9”, releases fuel again and passes even closer to the unmanned device.
Shortly after, the Russian plane collides with the drone and the image from the “MQ-9” camera is lost for approximately 60 seconds, the US command reports. When the camera recovers the transmission, it can be seen that the propeller and one of the drone’s struts are damaged.
After the incident, the United States government assured that it was forced to crash the drone into the waters of the Black Sea and blamed Moscow.
The Russian Defense Ministry denied any contact between its fighters and the drone, which, according to the Kremlin’s version, went into a sudden uncontrolled flight and crashed into the sea after suddenly losing altitude.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told Russian television on Wednesday that “perhaps the wrong people shouldn’t have flown there? Then everything would have been respectful of the environment”, according to appointment of RT.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his US counterpart Lloyd Austin addressed the incident in a telephone conversation they held yesterday at the initiative of the US side, according to the Russian source.
The event took place near the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.
With information from Efe, RT and CNN.
