Washington publishes images of the interception of its drone by the Russians

The images published by the US Department of Defense show a Russian Sukhoi-27 fighter brushing against an American drone, spraying it with fuel.

The U.S. military released footage Thursday of the Russian military intercepting its drone over the Black Sea, showing a fighter spraying the aircraft with fuel, which the aircraft x27;we then see with a damaged propeller blade.

The declassified video footage released on the US Armed Forces Europe Command website lasts 42 seconds and shows a Russian Sukhoi-27 passing directly over the drone twice, after approaching it from behind.

The Reaper MQ-9 fell in international waters after being hit, according to Washington, by a Russian fighter. Moscow admits the interception of the device by its fighter jets, but denies any contact that would have led to its crash.

The US military command on Thursday released the images captured by one of its drones, intercepted and damaged by a Russian fighter in the Black Sea.

This is a reckless and dangerous action, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said while visiting Addis Ababa.

On the first passage, no shock is visible between the two devices, nor anything that seems to justify the fall of the drone.

The maneuver disrupts the video transmission, comments the site of the x27;US Army in Europe, which notes that the propeller of the drone can be seen and remains intact.

During a second passage, without it being established whether it is the same fighter or a second one, the maneuver is similar, but the aircraft passes even closer to the drone.

Image transmission is then interrupted for 60 seconds. When it resumes, the propeller can be seen again and one of the blades can be seen to be damaged, reports the United States Air Force.

The maneuver is frankly borderline, a fighter pilot from a European army told AFP, stressing that, according to the rules in force usually, an interception in the sky by a combat plane is done in parallel from the intercepted aircraft and never at such close range.

On Tuesday, General James Hecker, commander of US air forces in Europe, reported that an MQ-9 Reaper performing routine operations in international airspace had been intercepted by Su-27 fighters, then hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in the crash and loss of the drone.

While acknowledging that two fighters had come to intercept the drone, Russia claimed not to be responsible for its fall.

This is the first time since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, that a country of NATO admits losing self-ordered equipment in this highly flammable region.

An American MQ-9 drone, also called Reaper, was “intercepted” by a Russian fighter plane on Tuesday, above of the Black Sea.

Moscow says it wants to fish out the drone to prove US involvement in operations in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu believed that one of the causes of the incident was the strengthening of American espionage operations.

Washington has indicated that it has taken steps to protect potential sensitive data still on the device.

We are confident that what was of value n& #x27;has more, said the US Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley.

The skies of the Black Sea are the scene of very regular interactions between drones and aircraft of NATO countries and the Russian armed forces, especially since the start of the war in Ukraine.

The United States uses drones Reaper MQ-9 for surveillance, intelligence gathering and strikes. Several aircraft have been lost in recent years, including one shot down by a surface-to-air missile over Yemen in 2019, according to US Central Command.