WASHINGTON (HRNW) – The U.S. military surveillance drone that crashed into the Black Sea after being intercepted by Russian fighter jets may never be recovered, White House spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday.
In the first such incident since the Ukraine war began, Russian Su-27 jets struck the propeller of the unmanned drone, making it inoperable, the Pentagon said, worsening already tense relations between Washington and Moscow.
Russia’s defense ministry blamed “sharp maneuvering” of the drone for the crash and said that its jets did not make contact.
“It has not been recovered. And I’m not sure that we’re going to be able to recover it,” Kirby said in an interview with CNN. “Where it fell into the Black Sea – very, very deep water. So we’re still assessing whether there can be any kind of recovery effort. There may not be.”
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