The Pentagon held a briefing following the shooting down of an American drone over the Black Sea. The United States reported that they were preparing to publish a video of the incident with Russian fighters.

US Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder at a briefing commented on some issues related to the fall of an American UAV in the Black Sea, writes Channel 24.

Pat Ryder clarified the details of the incident

At approximately 7:03 am CET, one of the Russian Su-27s crashed into the propeller of a US Air Force MQ-9 drone, causing US forces to shoot it down in international waters.

At the same time, several times before the collision, the Su-27s dumped fuel and flew in front of the MQ-9 “recklessly and unprofessionally.” Also, according to Pet Ryder, the collision of a Russian fighter jet with a US drone over the Black Sea probably caused some damage to the Russian aircraft.

We have seen the fighter drop fuel in front of the UAV and then get so close to it that it actually damaged the propeller of the MQ-9. According to our estimates, this probably also caused some damage to the Russian aircraft, he said.

He noted that US drones had been flying over the Black Sea region for some time, adding that it was “an important and lively international waterway.”

US prepares to release video of incident

Pat Ryder said that the US Department of Defense is working to declassify visual information related to the collision of the MQ-9 drone and the Russian Su-27.

We are now in the declassification process and will be reporting up-to-date visual information about this incident,” he said.

Russia has not yet recovered the wreckage of a drone from the sea

Intercepted radio recordings suggest that the Russians may have been looking for the wreckage of the drone. However, according to Ryder, Russian forces do not have the wreckage of the drone.

“Russia doesn't have a drone,” he told reporters, but did not specify whether it had tried to collect the wreckage or whether it would be retrieved by US forces.