Drone forced down over Black Sea may never be recovered

• The drone that was shot down by a Russian fighter jet over the Black Sea has not been found.
• The Russian Ministry of Defense has denied contact with the drone.
• Saying it went into an unguided flight.

The drone that the US military said was shot down by a Russian fighter jet over the Black Sea has not been found and may never be, according to John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council.

“I’m not sure that we’re going to be able to recover it. I mean, where it fell into the Black Sea, very, very deep water. We’re still assessing whether there can be any recovery effort mounted. There may not be,” Kirby told media.

“We did the best we could to minimize any intelligence value that might come from somebody else getting their hands on that drone,” he added.

When pressed further, Kirby said, “I certainly can’t speak for Russian efforts or what they may or may not be trying to take off the surface of the water. I can just tell you that we’re still assessing that situation ourselves.”

According to a statement from US European Command, one of the Russian jets purposefully flew in front of the unmanned drone and repeatedly dropped gasoline on it.

The drone’s propeller was then struck by the aircraft, which led US Marines to shoot down the MQ-9 drone in international waters.

Russian jets trying to intercept or trouble US drones are “not uncommon,” Kirby emphasized.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has denied the Russian jet had come into contact with the drone in a statement on Tuesday, saying the fighter jets “scrambled to identify the intruder” after detecting it over the Black Sea, adding that the drone “went into an unguided flight with a loss of altitude.”

Kirby said on Wednesday morning: “First of all, they don’t belong in Ukraine. Secondly, they certainly don’t belong in Crimea. And we were flying, again, well outside of the airspace that was, that’s claimed by Ukraine or any other country. The Black Sea doesn’t belong to Russia. … We’re going to continue to operate, again, in complete in accordance with international law.”

Also Read

Russia launches missiles from Black Sea, says Kyiv

Russia has fired four cruise missiles at Ukraine from the Black Sea....