(PatrioticPost.com)- Tuesday, the United States revealed a video of a Russian jet dropping gasoline on a U.S. drone over the Black Sea, setting up a diplomatic crisis and a rush to retrieve sensitive equipment.
The White House condemned Moscow’s activities, calling them unsafe, unprofessional, and dangerous, while Russia’s military ministry denied their aircraft came into touch with the drone.
A newly released dramatic video shows a Russian plane releasing a cloud of fuel over the drone, knocking off power to the drone’s cameras.
The Russian and American planes have operated over the Black Sea since the conflict started, but this is the first occurrence of its nature.
US European Command said in a statement that a pair of Russian fighter planes and a US-made drone were over international seas in the Black Sea on Tuesday when a Russian jet allegedly swooped in front of the drone and repeatedly splashed gasoline on it.
The drone’s propeller was struck, and its remote pilots safely landed the MQ-9 in international seas. Spokesman for the United States Department of Defense Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said on Tuesday that the Russian aircraft flew “in the neighborhood” of the drone for 30 to 40 minutes before the two collided at about 7 a.m. Central European Time.
As it turned out, the Russians had told a quite different story. Russian military officials stated on Tuesday that a Russian fighter plane didn’t come into contact with a US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea.
The drones’ cameras captured the contact on Thursday, showing the Russian plane swerving dangerously near the unmanned aircraft (UAV).
John Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator of the National Security Council, said that if you see the video, you can see that the plane strikes the drone.
He said the decision to release the film was partly to lay bare that the Russians have been simply “flat-out lying.”
On Wednesday, a member of Russia’s Security Council said that Moscow would pursue retrieval of the drone’s remnants for scientific research.
