US releases video of Russian jet dumping fuel on its drone

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Pentagon on Thursday released footage of what it said was a Russian aircraft pouring fuel on a US Air Force surveillance drone and clipping the drone's propeller in international airspace over the Black Sea.

The 42-second video shows a Russian Su-27 approaching the back of the MQ-9 drone and beginning to release fuel as it passes, the Pentagon said. Dumping the fuel appeared to be aimed at blinding its optical instruments and driving it out of the area.

On a second approach, either the same jet or another Russian fighter that had been shadowing the MQ-9 struck the drone's propeller, damaging one blade, according to the US military.

The US military said it ditched the MQ-9 Reaper in the sea after what it described as the Russian fighter making an unsafe intercept of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

The video excerpt released by the Pentagon does not show events before or after the apparent fuel-dumping confrontation.

Russia said its warplanes didn't strike the drone and claimed the unmanned aerial vehicle went down after making a sharp manoeuvre over the sea.

Asked Thursday if Russia would try to recover the drone debris, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the decision was up to the military. “If they consider it necessary to do so in the Black Sea for the benefit of our interests and our security, they will do it,” he said.

Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia's Security Council, said Wednesday that Moscow would try to recover the drone fragments.

US officials have expressed confidence that nothing of military value would remain from the drone even if Russia managed to retrieve the wreckage.

Russia and NATO member countries routinely intercept each other's warplanes, but the drone incident marked the first time since the Cold War that a US aircraft went down during such a confrontation, raising concerns it could bring the United States and Russia closer to a direct conflict.

Moscow has repeatedly voiced concern about US intelligence flights near the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014 and illegally annexed.

The top US and Russian defence and military leaders spoke Wednesday about the destruction of the drone, underscoring the event's seriousness.

The calls between US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Valery Gerasimov, chief of Russian General Staff, were the first since October.

The Russian Defence Ministry said in its report of the call with Austin that Shoigu accused the US of provoking the incident by ignoring flight restrictions the Kremlin had imposed because of its military operations in Ukraine.

The Kremlin argues that by providing weapons to Ukraine and sharing intelligence information with Kyiv, the US and its allies have effectively become engaged in the war, which is now in its 13th month.

Russia also blamed “the intensification of intelligence activities against the interests of the Russian Federation,” the Defence Ministry said.

Such US actions “are fraught with escalation of the situation in the Black Sea area,” the ministry said, warning that Moscow “will respond in kind to all provocations.”

Sergei Aksenov, the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea, said he thinks Russia should act even more forcefully to put an end the US surveillance flights in the area.

The MQ-9, which has a 66-foot (20-meter) wingspan, includes a ground control station and satellite equipment. It is capable of carrying munitions, but Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesperson, would not say whether the ditched drone had been armed.

US officials have left open the possibility of trying to recover portions of the downed $32 million drone, which they said crashed into waters that were 4,000 to 5,000 feet deep.

Other US officials said the US does not have military ships in the region and likely won't attempt to recover the wreckage.

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