Russia’s defense minister has instructed the armed forces to counter US reconnaissance drones flying over the Black Sea.

The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation published a statement.

This is due to the fact that these UAVs allegedly provide targeting information to the Ukrainian Defense Forces, which use high-precision Western weapons to strike at Russian military facilities.

They also added that the flights of US strategic reconnaissance aircraft over the Black Sea allegedly “increase the likelihood of incidents in the airspace with aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces.”

That’s why Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, who recently took office, instructed the Russian army’s general staff to make “proposals for measures to respond promptly to provocations.”

Russian propagandist Ilya Tumanov, who runs the Fighterbomber aviation channel, explicitly states that Russian fighter jets will try to shoot down American drones.

Aggressive actions of Russian aviation

On March 14 last year, the United States military had to sink its MQ-9 Reaper drone after a collision with Russian aircraft.

The Americans said that two Russian Su-27 aircraft had conducted an unsafe and unprofessional intercept with an unmanned U.S. Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and reconnaissance MQ-9 aircraft, causing it to crash into the Black Sea.

The U.S. military said that Russian Su-27s had dumped fuel in front of the MQ-9 and had struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing U.S. forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters.

The U.S. military emphasized that this incident was an example of aggressive actions by Russian pilots when interacting with US aircraft and allies in international airspace.

They also published a video showing Russian planes performing dangerous maneuvers near the drone and dumping fuel several times in an attempt to pour it on the American UAV.

The last seconds of the video also show a damaged engine blade of the American drone, indicating that the Russian fighter jet collided with the MQ-9 Reaper in midair.