Shillong, March 15: A United States drone crashed after a Russian jet collided with it over the Black Sea. The US military called the incident a “reckless manoeuvre”.
US European Command in a statement said that a MQ-9 Reaper which was over international waters was intercepted by two Russian Su-27 jets.
The statement read, “Several times before the collision, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” it said.
However Russia has refuted the allegations stating that it did not crash the drone. The Pentagon said that the drone was on a routine intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance mission.
The Russian Defense Ministry in a statement said, “As a result of a sharp manoeuvre, the MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle entered an uncontrolled flight with loss of altitude and collided with the surface of the water”.
The US has lodged a protest with Russia’s ambassador.
It has been learnt that Russian jets frequently intercept drones over the Black Sea.