NEW DELHI: The US department of defence on Thursday released the footage of the collision between a Russian Su-27 and an American MQ-9 drone over the Black Sea earlier this week.
In the video taken from the drone, the Russian jet can be seen dumping fuel as it heads towards the MQ-9 and eventually collides into it.
The feed gets interrupted for a brief while and the damaged propeller of the drone can be seen when it resumes.
BREAKING: DoD releases footage of a Russian Su-27 colliding into a U.S. MQ-9 over the Black Sea Tuesday.
You can see the Russian aircraft dump fuel on the MQ-9, then bump into it. The video is lost; a few seconds later the feed returns and you can see the propeller is damaged. pic.twitter.com/jzF7NZ1em5
— Lara Seligman (@laraseligman) March 16, 2023
The US military on Tuesday said that a Russian Su-27 jet fighter collided with an American MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea causing American forces to bring down the unmanned aerial vehicle in international waters.
The crash on Tuesday, which Washington said was the fault of reckless and unprofessional Russian conduct, further ratcheted up tensions between Moscow and Western allies, already soaring over the Ukraine conflict.
The drone incident was the first known direct US-Russia encounter since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and has laid bare the parlous state of relations between the world’s leading nuclear powers.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had scrambled jets after detecting a US drone over the Black Sea, but denied causing the crash, saying the aircraft had lost control.
The Pentagon said the drone was on a routine mission when it was intercepted “in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner” and White House national security spokesman John Kirby refuted Russia’s denial.
Russian intercepts over the Black Sea are common, Kirby said, but this one was particularly “unsafe and unprofessional” and “reckless”.
Ukraine said the incident was “provoked by Russia” and cautioned that it signalled President Vladimir Putin’s aim to “expand the conflict”.
