The White House considers the Russian pilot, who received the Order of Courage for the incident of the American MQ-9 drone over the Black Sea, as an “idiot”. On this subject declared John Kirby, coordinator of strategic communications at the National Security Council, at a press conference.
The United States claims that a Russian plane crashed into a drone. “I don’t know of any other military in the world, any other air force in the world that would reward a pilot for crashing into a drone. If that’s courage, then I guess they have a different definition of that concept” , said Kirby.
It is unclear whether the pilot attempted to “intentionally ram” the drone, according to a US official.
“I don’t know why they gave the gallantry award to a pilot who, at worst, deliberately put himself and American property in danger, and at best, just an idiot,” Kirby concluded.
Incident over the Black Sea
On March 14, the United States European Command reported that a Russian Su-27 fighter jet collided with an American MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea. The Pentagon said the plane crashed into a drone, after which the aircraft had to be flooded in international waters.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that on the morning of March 14 over the Black Sea in the Crimean Peninsula region, the airspace control facilities of the Aerospace Forces recorded an American drone flying towards the Russian border. To identify the intruder, Su-27 fighters were lifted into the air. The drone began to maneuver abruptly and fell into the water. At the same time, as the Ministry of Defense pointed out, the Russian fighters did not use airborne weapons and did not come into contact with the drone.
March 22 Shoigu reward Courage orders for Su-27 pilots. The Ministry of Defense said in a statement that the pilots prevented a US drone from violating “the borders of the region of the temporary regime of use of airspace” put in place in order to carry out a military operation in Ukraine.
