Russia denies its fighter jets struck U.S. drone over Black Sea

A Russian fighter jet struck the propeller of a U.S. surveillance drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday in a “brazen violation of international law,” causing American forces to bring down the unmanned aerial vehicle, the U.S. said.

But Moscow says the drone manoeuvred sharply and crashed into the water following an encounter with its jets — which were scrambled to intercept it near Crimea — insisting its warplanes didn’t fire their weapons or hit the drone.

“The U.S. drone went into uncontrollable flight with a loss of altitude” and fell into the water, said Russia’s Defence Ministry. 

The incident has raised tensions over Russia’s war in Ukraine.

U.S. President Joe Biden was briefed on the encounter by national security adviser Jake Sullivan, according to White House national security spokesperson John Kirby. He added that State Department officials would be speaking directly with their Russian counterparts and “expressing our concerns over this unsafe and unprofessional intercept.”

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the U.S. will lodge a protest with the Russian ambassador and that and the U.S. ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, has made similar representations in Moscow.

The U.S. European Command said earlier in a statement that two Russian Su-27 fighter jets “conducted an unsafe and unprofessional intercept” of a U.S. MQ-9 drone that was operating within international airspace over the Black Sea.

It said one of the Russian fighters “struck the propeller” of the MQ-9, after which U.S. forces intentionally brought it down in international waters. 

Prior to that, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 several times before the collision in “a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” the U.S. European Command said in a statement from Stuttgart, Germany.

WATCH | U.S. drone clipped by Russian fighter jet, U.S. says: 

U.S. says Russian jet forced its surveillance drone to crash

The U.S. says it was forced to crash its own surveillance drone after it was clipped by a Russian fighter jet, the first time military aircraft from the two superpowers have come into contact since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. For its part, Russia denied having contact with the drone.

Moscow has repeatedly voiced concern about U.S. intelligence flights close to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. 

The Kremlin…