A US reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft took off from a base in southern Italy, en route to the western region of the Black Sea, two days after Russian M-type drones shot down, navigational data showed. Q-9" (MQ-9) after its interception, which led to great tension between the two countries.

The United States confirmed on Friday the continuation of its sorties over the Black Sea, as navigational data revealed that the American drone was launched from Italy, and flew over Bulgaria and Romania, and revealed that the plane has carried out more than 20 sorties in the western Black Sea since the beginning of the year.

Conflicting narratives

While the Russian Defense Ministry said the US drone fell as a result of a sharp maneuver, which made it lose control and altitude control and collide with the surface of the water, the US Air Force said that the collision occurred 40 or 50 nautical miles southwest of Crimea, over the Black Sea, in international airspace.

On Thursday, the United States released a declassified video showing Russia intercepting the plane, a clip the White House said exposed Moscow's lies about what happened.

In the video, a Russian Su-27 fighter jet can be seen getting too close to the drone and unloading fuel nearby, in what U.S. officials said appeared to be an attempt to damage the U.S. plane in flight.


The video also shows the video being interrupted after another nearby Russian maneuver, which the Pentagon said was caused by a Russian plane colliding with the drone. The video ends with images of the drone's propeller crash, which the Pentagon said caused by the collision, which damaged the plane and caused it to fall into deep water.

A map shown by the U.S. military showed the interception initially occurred between 40 and 50 nautical miles off the coast of Crimea in international airspace, and said the collision occurred about 10 more miles away and that the drone eventually crashed 75 to 85 nautical miles from land.

John Kirby, the U.S. National Security Council's strategic communications coordinator, said Washington would continue to use drones in the Black Sea to safeguard U.S. interests and enable Ukraine to defend itself.

CNN quoted US officials as saying that the Pentagon is evaluating the routes of US drones over the Black Sea and is considering alternative ways to evade Russian fighter jets, as well as relying on satellites to gather information.


Russian exile

Russia denied U.S. accusations that its planes acted recklessly in Tuesday's crash, blaming the drone's "sharp manoeuvres" for the crash and saying its planes did not collide with it.

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said drone movement in airspace, which is part of Russia's territory and sovereignty, must be tracked.

He added, in a tweet on Telegram, that the Americans have completely lost their minds, and that harmony with them is wrong, despite the need for military contacts, as he put it, and explained that the Americans withdrew from the Open Skies Treaty, which gave the right to military inspection.

Russia's Defense Ministry said Minister Sergei Shoigu honored the pilots who prevented a U.S. drone from violating the boundaries of the special operations zone.

Shoigu nominated the Su-27 crew that intercepted the MQ-9 march over the Black Sea last Tuesday for the State Medal, the ministry said.

The wreckage of the march

While the Kremlin said Russian forces would pull the U.S. drone from the bottom of the Black Sea if it deemed it necessary to ensure security, Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said his country had indications that Russia was trying to rescue the march, but ruled out being able to recover anything useful.

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said that the recovery of the remnants of the drone from the Black Sea will be difficult, and that these remains are found at a depth of more than 1500,<> meters underwater.