The United States believes that Russia has recovered some of the wreckage of the American drone that crashed in the Black Sea after it collided with a Russian Su-27 fighter on the morning of Tuesday, March 14. US sources revealed to CNN, explaining that they are fiberglass and other small parts from the MQ-9 Reaper. Meanwhile, the US has released a map (LOOK) which, with a margin, reconstructs the stages of the story.
The drone was intercepted between 6 and 7 am in an area about 40-50 miles from the Crimean coast. The maneuvers of the two Su-27s lasted, it is believed, about 40 minutes. The collision between one of the fighters and the drone occurred between 7 and 7.20 about 50-60 nautical miles from the coast. The drone, with propeller damaged, crashed into the sea between 7.20 and 7.30 about 75-85 nautical miles from Crimea, Romania. It is not clear if the drone crashed due to damage or a decision by whoever remotely controlled the drone. In any case, the United States would have succeeded in neutralizing the software on the device.
Russia is recovering from fragility – Since Wednesday, it has been known that Russian Navy assets have reached the area where the plane crashed. However, the Biden administration has downplayed the impact of the Russians’ discovery of the drone’s wreckage. “We’ve made it impossible for them to get any valuable intelligence from the wreckage that they can find at sea,” said John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council.
The United States released a video documenting a phase of the close confrontation between the drone and the Russian fighters. “Our version of what happened is so clearly stated, I think anyone who’s seen the video can see it,” Kirby said. The photos show how Russia is “lying completely” about what happened.
Kirby said the decision to release the video of the incident was made “to show the rest of the world how the Russians lie.” The Americans in fact deplored that the Russian fighter first emptied its tanks on the MQ-9 and then hit its propellers, causing it to plummet into the sea. The Russians deny that there was any physical contact between the fighter and the drone.
Kirby asserted that the video provided no evidence of the Russian pilot’s intentions: “At best, it’s irresponsible behaviour, at worst irresponsible and incompetent. We don’t know if it was intentional or not, the video doesn’t show that.”
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