Russia says US drone threatened Crimea and fell in Black Sea itself
The Ministry of Defence of Russia stated on the evening of Tuesday that their Su-27 fighter jets had nothing to do with the crash of the MQ-9 Reaper American UAV in the Black Sea. In addition, they said it approached annexed Crimea and was flying with violations.
Source: European Pravda.
Details: As the Russian Defence Ministry states, the American UAV was flying "towards the state border of the Russian Federation" with transponders turned off and "violating the borders of the area of a temporary airspace use regime."
Quote from the Ministry of Defence of Russia: "In order to identify an intruder, fighter jets of air defence units took off. As a result of a manoeuvre, MQ-9 UAV started to fly uncontrollably, losing the flight altitude and crashing with the water surface."
More details: The Russian Defence Ministry said that Russian fighter jets "have not had any contact" with the UAV and "successfully returned to the airfield."
The United States Navy made a statement on 14 March where they said that the Russian Su-27 fighter jet damaged the American MQ-9 Reaper UAV over the Black Sea; as a result, they had to drown the UAV.
The American Command had pointed out that the MQ-9 was performing regular operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and shot down by a Russian jet, which led to an incident and complete loss of the MQ-9.
"In fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash. US and Allied aircraft will continue to operate in international airspace, and we call on the Russians to conduct themselves professionally and safely," said US Air Force General James B. Hecker, commander of US Air Forces Europe and Africa.
US President Joe Biden has been informed of the incident, and the White House has called Russia’s actions "dangerous, unprofessional and unreasonable".
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