On Tuesday morning over the Black Sea, south of Ukraine but in international airspace, there was a clash between a Russian military plane and a US drone, which then it was crashed: this was communicated by the European Command of the US army, according to which the clash took place after two Russian planes had conducted “dangerous and unprofessional interception activity”.
Specifically, the Russian planes, two Su-27s fighter interceptors presented as “from the Soviet period”, flew close to the drone for at least 30 minutes: first they unloaded fuel on the drone (which as such had no pilot on board) and flew in front; after which, one of the two would have hit the drone, forcing the US Air Force to drop it into the sea. It is unclear whether the Russian plane hit the drone on purpose or ran into it while it was trying to do something else.
The drone was an MQ-9 Reaper, which has a wingspan of 20 meters and is designed for high-altitude surveillance flights, and was carrying out “routine operations”.
The US military has announced that it will continue to operate in the area and John Kirby, the spokesman for the National Security Council of the US presidency, he said which is not the first time that, in connection with the war in Ukraine, Russia has carried out interception operations, which until today, however, had never ended with the fall of a drone. US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the US had summoned the Russian ambassador to Washington.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a message via Telegram that its plane did not make contact with the drone, claiming it crashed for other reasons. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said the United States possesses video recorded by the drone, which would confirm the US version.