The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday denied any responsibility in connection with the crash of a US drone over the Black Sea. The drone was neither shot at nor attacked in any other way, according to a statement distributed by the state agency TASS.
A Russian Air Force alarm squad was deployed to identify an unknown intruder over the Black Sea. During a sharp evasive maneuver, the drone rapidly lost altitude and fell into the sea, according to the Russian military. “The Russian warplanes did not use onboard weapons, did not come into contact with the UAV and returned safely to their home base.”
The US military said that two Russian fighter jets had intercepted the American MQ-9 Reaper drone, which was flying in international airspace over the Black Sea. One of the fighter jets grazed the propeller of the American reconnaissance drone. US forces would then have had to bring the unmanned aerial vehicle to the ground. Before the collision, the Russian jets dumped fuel over the US drone several times and flew in front of it.