let’s see | Washington publishes pictures of the Russians intercepting its drone

On Thursday, the US army launched footage of the Russian army intercepting its drone over the Black Sea, exhibiting a fighter jet spraying gasoline on the airplane in an obvious aggressive transfer.

• Additionally learn: The Russian military denies inflicting the downing of the American drone

• Additionally learn: An American drone: Moscow requires stopping “enemy” flights, Kiev accuses Putin of escalation

• Additionally learn: A Russian fighter hit an American drone within the Black Sea

The declassified photos broadcast on the US Armed Forces Europe web site final about forty seconds and present a Russian Su-27 passing twice over the drone after it approached it from behind.

On the primary move, no shock was seen between the 2 units, nor something that appeared to justify the drone’s fall. The maneuver “disrupts the video feed,” feedback the US Military Europe web site, which notes that the drone’s propeller “might be seen and stays intact.”

In the course of the second move, with out establishing whether or not it’s the identical fighter or the second, the maneuver is similar however the plane passes very near the drone. Then the switch of photos is interrupted. When it resumes, “the propeller might be seen once more and one can see that one of many blades is broken,” the US Air Drive feedback.

On Tuesday, Gen. James Hecker, commander of US Air Forces Europe, mentioned the Su-27 fighters had been intercepted by an MQ-9 Reaper that was conducting “routine operations in worldwide airspace” after which “rammed by a Russian plane, leading to its crash and loss.” “The drone.

Whereas Russia admitted that two fighters intercepted the drone, it claimed that it was not answerable for its downing.

That is the primary time for the reason that begin of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 {that a} NATO nation has admitted shedding self-operated tools on this extremely risky area.

Moscow claims that it desires to catch the drone in an effort to show, from its standpoint, the involvement of america within the operations in Ukraine. Russian Protection Minister Sergei Shoigu mentioned on Wednesday that one of many causes for the incident was the “strengthening” of US spy operations.

For his half, US Secretary of Protection Lloyd Austin confirmed that america will proceed to fly “wherever worldwide legislation permits.”