NEW ORLEANS — We’re seeing video of the first-known contact between Russia and the U.S. since the start of the war with Ukraine.
In the video, which was recorded on Tuesday, a Russian fighter jet takes two passes at a United States surveillance drone. The first time, the jet sprays fuel at the drone. On the second pass, the jet clips the drone.
The video pixelates as the drone loses communication, but when it comes back for a moment, you can see damage to the propeller at the back of the drone.
The drone was an unmanned MQ-9A Reaper. The U.S. Air Force said the drone is remotely piloted and deployed mostly to collect intelligence and do surveillance.
The military said damage from the Russian attack forced them to fly it as a glider and bring it down in the Black Sea.
Russian officials say they’ve already recovered some of the crashed drone from the sea, but the military has already wiped it of any sensitive data.
Originally, Russia had said its plane didn’t force the drone to crash, but now, they’re saying the drone entered airspace restricted by the Russians since the start of the war with Ukraine.
The Biden administration has not said if it will take any action against Russia over the incident, perhaps seeking not to escalate things with the Kremlin.
But the Department of Defense say it is taking this attack seriously. Intelligence officials are looking into the pilot’s intent and how much high-ranking Kremlin leaders knew about the attack in advance.
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