US releases video of Russian jet colliding with drone
US military officials have released a dramatic video of the moment a Russian fighter jet collided with a US drone over the Black Sea earlier this week.
The footage shared Thursday morning by the US European Command (EUCOM) was captured by the underside camera of the MQ-9 Reaper drone as one of two Su-27 fighter jets attempted to spray it with jet fuel.
On the second try, the jet collides with the drone’s rear propeller, and the screen pixelates as communication goes down.
An audio clip also purported to capture a Russian salvage team recovering the aircraft’s engine casing.
“We raised part of the object,” one voice says in the recording obtained by East to West.
“It’s the casing of an engine,” another replies.
The video of the Tuesday incident was released less than one day after Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it “remains to be seen” whether the downing was intentional.
“We know that the intercept was intentional. We know that the aggressive behavior was intentional — we also know it was very unprofessional and very unsafe,” he said.
In a Telegram post Tuesday night, the Russian ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, claimed that the pair of Su-27s “did not come into contact with” the drone.
He later described the collision as a response to the US “deliberately and provocatively” encroaching on Moscow’s airspace.
“The unacceptable activity of the US military in the close proximity to our borders is a cause for concern,” Antonov said.
“They gather intelligence, which is subsequently used by the Kyiv [Ukraine] regime to strike at our armed forces and territory.”
A major point of contention is that the US still recognizes Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, as Ukrainian territory.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby hit back at Antonov’s comments, telling CNN that “the Black Sea doesn’t belong to Russia.”
“We’re going to continue to operate, again, in complete accordance with international law,” he insisted.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also discussed the incident with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday in their first phone conference since last fall.
“Sergei Shoigu pointed out that the incident was caused by the US actions of non-compliance with the flight restriction zone declared by the Russian Federation established in connection with the [war], as well as increased reconnaissance activities against the interests of the Russian Federation,” the ministry said in a statement following the conversation.
The presence of US drones near the area, the ministry warned, “creates preconditions for the escalation of the situation in the Black Sea area.”
It is unclear whether the drone’s intelligence operations were related to the ongoing Ukraine war.
The incident is believed to be the first time since the Cold War era that an American aircraft was downed following an encounter with Russian forces.
