Russia to honor pilots who intercepted US drone

The Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, proposed yesterday to decorate the pilots of the Russian Su-27 fighters that last Tuesday intercepted an American drone that ended up crashing in international waters of the Black Sea.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
17 March 2023 Friday 13:24
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Russia to honor pilots who intercepted US drone

The Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, proposed yesterday to decorate the pilots of the Russian Su-27 fighters that last Tuesday intercepted an American drone that ended up crashing in international waters of the Black Sea. Shoigu justified his initiative because the aviators "prevented the American MQ-9 flying apparatus from violating the limits of the zone of restricted use of airspace established to carry out the special military operation in Ukraine."

Former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev affirmed yesterday that the Russian Air Navigation Code allows the government to establish no-flight or restriction zones. "Drones must respect these rules, especially in periods of military action, as airspace users know," said Medvedev, who is currently vice president of the Russian Security Council. “The Americans have completely lost their temper,” Medvedev added. "And having sympathies with them is not correct," added the former president.

The US denounced that one of the two Russian fighters hit the drone's propeller in a "reckless" action and that fuel was thrown on its device. This week, the Pentagon released the video of the incident where the maneuver of the Russian military plane is appreciated, but the supposed collision with the propeller is not seen, since the recording is edited.

For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense denies that there was any contact between its planes and the US apparatus. According to Russian sources, the crashed drone has a value of between 23 and 56 million dollars.