The United States has resumed reconnaissance drone flights over the Black Sea following an incident involving an MQ-9 Reaper drone and a Russian Su-27 fighter jet. It is reported by RBC with reference to Reuters.
An RQ-4 Global Hawk drone was sent to the region the day before, March 17, according to two U.S. officials.
The reconnaissance flight of this drone was also reported by CNN, referring to the FlightRadar24 service. According to him, the drone was flying at an altitude of 52 thousand feet (almost 16 km) over the southern part of the Black Sea, he flew in from Romanian airspace. For some time the RQ-4 Global Hawk spent international airspace southeast of Crimea and west of Sochi.
According to a Reuters source, this was the first such drone flight since the incident. At the same time, on the eve of CNN, it was reported that the United States sent another drone of the same model to the crash site of the MQ-9 Reaper, he was supposed to follow how work was going to search for the wreckage.
According to the European Command of the US Armed Forces, on the morning of March 14, an MQ-9 was conducting reconnaissance over the international waters of the Black Sea, when two Su-27s headed to intercept it. The American side stated that the fighters dropped fuel onto the drone, and one of the Su-27s hit the propeller of the drone and it had to be flooded, and published a video of what happened. The Russian Ministry of Defense rejects this version, stating that the Su-27s did not make contact with the MQ-9s. According to the Russian side, the drone “as a result of sharp maneuvering went into an uncontrolled flight with a loss of altitude and collided with the water surface.”
The ministry said that the Su-27 pilots prevented the drone from violating “the borders of the area of the temporary regime for the use of airspace established for the purpose of conducting a special military operation.” The pilots were presented for state awards.
On March 15, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke by phone with Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin. Shoigu said that the United States did not comply with the restricted flight zone. Washington does not agree with this: Austin said that the United States will continue to act wherever international law allows it. John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator at the White House National Security Council, called the Russian restrictions illegal.
Source: Rosbalt
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