The U.S. military’s European Command on Thursday released a video of the recent collision between an American drone and a Russian fighter jet in international airspace over the Black Sea.
The footage shows the Russian fighter plane dumping what appears to be jet fuel atop the drone’s flight path.
On Tuesday, an MQ-9 Reaper was flying over the Black Sea when a Russian Su-27 fighter jet intercepted and downed the drone.
“Two Russian jets dumped fuel on an unmanned U.S. MQ-9 aircraft conducting routine operations in international airspace. And one Russian jet intercepted and hit our MQ-9 aircraft, resulting in a crash,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a press conference on Wednesday.
Russia has blamed the United States for escalating the matter and dismissed any responsibility for the incident, dispatching a recovery team to collect debris from the downed drown.