Sergei Shoigu, Russian Minister of Defense, “presented state decorations to the pilots of the Su-27s, which prevented the violation by an American drone MQ-9 of the temporary regime zone”.
Russia said on Friday it had decorated pilots involved in the Black Sea incident with a US drone that Washington says crashed after being hit by Russian fighter jets, which Moscow denies.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu “presented state decorations to the pilots of the Su-27s, which prevented the violation by an American MQ-9 drone of the temporary regime zone of use of space air,” his ministry said in a statement.
The Black Sea sky under tension
As part of its military offensive in Ukraine, Moscow had unilaterally announced flight restrictions in the skies of the Black Sea, the scene of very regular interactions between drones and aircraft from NATO countries and the Russian armed forces.
On Thursday, the US military released footage of Tuesday’s interception, over the Black Sea, of its drone by the Russian military, showing a fighter spraying fuel on the aircraft, which is then seen with a damaged propeller blade.
The incident caused a brief escalation of tensions between Washington and Moscow, notably resulting in a rare call between Sergei Shoigu and his American counterpart Lloyd Austin.
An incident following “sudden maneuvers”?
While acknowledging that two fighters had intercepted the drone, Russia said it was not responsible for its fall and assured that one of the causes of the incident was the “reinforcement” of American espionage activities.
On Friday, the Russian Ministry of Defense again claimed that the Russian pilots did not “use their on-board weaponry, did not make contact with the drone and returned safely to their base”. According to Moscow, the American drone crashed into the sea “following sudden maneuvers around 9:30 a.m. Moscow time”.
The United States uses Reaper MQ-9 drones for surveillance, intelligence gathering and strikes.
