The Pentagon blamed a Russian fighter jet for the downing of a US spy drone into the Black Sea on Tuesday, while Moscow denied any collision, saying the encounter highlighted the growing risk of direct confrontation between Russia and the United States over the Ukraine conflict.
Two Russian Su-27 jets conducted what the US military described as reckless intercepts of an MQ-9 “Reaper” drone in international airspace before one of them collided with it at 7:03 a.m. (06:03 GMT), causing the drone to crash into the sea.
Several times before the collision, the Russian fighter jets dumped fuel on the MQ-9, possibly attempting to blind or damage it, and flew in front of the drone in unsafe maneuvers, the US military said.
