The Pentagon has released a declassified video of a mid-air confrontation between two Russian fighter jets and an unmanned American Reaper drone over the Black Sea.
The video shows one of the Russian warplanes spraying jet fuel directly in the path of the drone, and another approach by the Russian jet resulted in the collision that caused the American aircraft’s propeller to shear off, forcing the drone to crash.
While American officials suggest that the collision was caused by aggressive behavior from the Russian pilots, the Russian government denies any wrongdoing.
The Biden administration declassified the video to demonstrate publicly the type of actions taken by the Russians and to prove that they are lying.
The U.S assesses that the actions of the Russian pilots were approved by top Kremlin leaders.
The American drone, worth $32 million, is on the bottom of the Black Sea, and the U.S has not made any efforts to recover the wreckage.
The Pentagon says that they were able to remotely erase any sensitive information from the drone in case it ends up in Russian hands.
