LONDON (Dispatches) - Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has presented awards to the pilots of two Su-27 fighter planes that intercepted a U.S. drone, his ministry said on Friday.
The drone crashed into the Black Sea on Tuesday after being intercepted by Russian jets, in the first known direct military encounter between Russia and the United States since Russia, Ukraine war a year ago.
Announcing the awards, the ministry repeated Russia’s version of events - disputed by Washington - that the Russian planes did not make physical contact with the drone.
“As a result of sharp maneuvering around 9:30 a.m. (Moscow time), the MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle went into uncontrolled flight with a loss of altitude and collided with the water surface,” it said.
It said the drone had been flying with its transponders turned off and violating airspace restrictions that Russia had made public in connection with what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine.
The U.S. military had alleged the Russian fighter planes approached its MQ-9 Reaper drone during a reconnaissance mission over the Black Sea in international airspace. It said the fighters harassed the drone and sprayed fuel on it in an encounter lasting 30-40 minutes before one clipped the drone’s propeller, causing it to crash into the sea.
U.S. writer and analyst Daniel Patrick Welch has said that the downing of a U.S. spy drone off the coast of Crimea over the Black Sea has marked a serious incident between the United States and Russian Federation.
From the outset, Welch says, it is important to place the events in a historical context. “The US is completely unashamed by the depth and audacity of the evil plans it is revealed to have organized. No matter what you catch them doing, there is zero chance they will take the high road, admit responsibility, and adjust their course.”
What are some relevant and recent examples? “Backing Right Sector heroes they agreed were terrorists a short while ago? Never happened. Nordstream bombers? Naaaaah,” he says.
This incident, he claims, is not much different. But he sees an almost comedic repetition in how the U.S. expects responses to be different. “Now, getting its drones as close to Crimea as they can without getting caught [oops!] is just another setup for a sketch on the mock news of Saturday Night Live. The U.S.-sponsored headline is that “Russia is warned to operate military aircraft with caution.” Now switch to Russia’s real-world response, namely, that after the recent drone incident (where a US drone 60 miles from Crimea was taken out by a Russian plane), Russia vows to retaliate against ‘all US provocations.’”
Russia denied that its forces had made any effort to down the drone, and instead suggested that the U.S. aircraft had possibly crashed due to “sharp maneuvering.”
According to Moscow, the incident happened as the UAV was flying “over the waters of the Black Sea in the area of the Crimean peninsula...towards the Russian state border.”