U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has criticized the Russian Defense Department for awarding medals to pilots who took part in shooting down a sophisticated U.S. military drone over the Black Sea last week.
Pentagon video showed what it says was a Russian drone colliding with the drone before it crashed, but Moscow said the U.S. plane had lost control.
"I don't know any other army in the world," Kirby said. He honored a pilot for crashing a drone. If that's courage, I think they have a different definition of it."
"I have no idea why they would award a pilot a bravery award who at worst maliciously exposed himself and the United States plane to great risks, and at best was just a fool."
Washington and Moscow have given different accounts of the downing of the MQ-9 drone, accusing each other of causing it.
The US military spoke of what it described as a "reckless" interception operation carried out by two Russian Sukhoi-27 aircraft, noting that one of the planes hit the drone's propeller, causing it to fall.
On the other hand, Moscow considered what happened an American "provocation" and denied that its air force was the reason behind the fall of the American drone.
The incident, the "first direct confrontation" between the two countries since Russia's war on Ukraine began a year ago, has added further strain to relations that are at an all-time low, according to Russian and U.S. officials.