WASHINGTON/KYIV (Reuters) – After a US military drone crashed over the Black Sea, the Department of Defense in Washington has released video of the incident involving Russian warplanes.
The approximately 40-second video shows a Russian Su-27 fighter jet coming very close to an MQ-9 Reaper drone and releasing kerosene. The US Department of Defense said on Thursday that the video had been shortened, but the chronological sequence had been retained. It ends with a picture of a damaged drone propeller and the recording stops.
The incident happened on Tuesday over the Black Sea. The US condemned the Russian approach as dangerous and unprofessional. The drone was flying in international airspace when it was intercepted by the Russian jets and became inoperable due to the damage and crashed into the sea. Russia denied having acted negligently. The drone flew dangerous maneuvers and came provocatively close to the Russian airspace off Crimea. Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014.
The defense ministers of the two countries, Lloyd Austin and Sergei Schoigu, exchanged views on the incident on Wednesday. The flights of American drones near Crimea represented a provocation and could lead to escalations, Shoigu Austin said, according to a statement from his ministry. Russia has no interest in an escalation, but will react with the necessary proportionality in the future. Austin declined to comment on his phone call with Shoigu. Russia has recently been a little more aggressive, US Chief of Staff Mark Milley said on Wednesday. It is clear that the Russian pilots wanted to intercept the US drone, but it is not clear whether they wanted to fly directly against the drone.
It was the first direct military clash between the US and Russia since the start of the Ukraine war a little over a year ago. The incident made it clear that the United States was directly involved in the war, the Russian side said. The US supports Ukraine with money and weapons, but emphasizes that it is not a party to the war.
(Report by Reuters editors, written by Kerstin Dörr. If you have any questions, please contact our editors at [email protected] (for politics and the economy) or [email protected] (for companies and markets)