Russia said on Friday it had decorated the pilots involved in the Black Sea incident with a US drone that Washington said crashed after being hit by Russian warplanes, which Moscow denies.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu “presented state decorations to the Su-27 pilots, who prevented the violation by an American MQ-9 drone of the temporary airspace use regime zone,” his defense minister said. ministry in a statement.
The Black Sea sky under tension
As part of its military offensive in Ukraine, Moscow had unilaterally announced flight restrictions in the skies over the Black Sea, the scene of very regular interactions between drones and aircraft from NATO countries and the Russian armed forces.
On Thursday, the US military released footage of Tuesday’s interception of its drone by the Russian military over the Black Sea, showing a fighter spraying fuel on the plane, which is later seen with a propeller. damaged.
The incident caused a brief escalation in tensions between Washington and Moscow, resulting in a rare call between Sergei Shoigu and his US counterpart Lloyd Austin.
An incident after “sudden maneuvers”?
While acknowledging that two fighter jets had intercepted the drone, Russia said it was not responsible for its crash, saying one of the causes of the incident was the “strengthening” of US espionage activities.
On Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry reaffirmed that the Russian pilots did not “use their weapons on board, did not make contact with the drone and returned safely to their base.” According to Moscow, the US drone crashed into the sea “after sudden maneuvers around 9:30 am Moscow time.”
The United States uses MQ-9 Reaper drones for surveillance, intelligence gathering, and strikes.
Source: BFM TV
