March 17, 2023 - Epoch Times
09:57
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| Just earlier today, the U.S. Air Force declassified and released the official video footage from the unmanned drone that was taken down over the Black Sea. | |
| And in a shocking turn of events, the video footage shows that the Russians were actually lying. | |
| Now, if you don't know the backstory with the American drone and two Russian fighter jets fiasco, well, yesterday we published an entire episode breaking down the entire situation step by step. | |
| You can click on that link in the top right corner to watch that episode in its entirety. | |
| But, in short, what happened was that the U.S. was flying an unmanned MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea. | |
| Among other things, this particular model of drone has very high-level surveillance capabilities. | |
| And so, very likely, they were conducting surveillance operations related to the Ukraine-Russia war. | |
| Now, as the drone was flying towards the Crimean Peninsula, the Russians picked up the drone on their radar and scrambled two of their Su-27 fighter jets in order to intercept it. | |
| Then, the stories about what happened next diverge. | |
| The Americans claimed that the Russian fighter jets were extremely aggressive and spent about half an hour making 19 passes over the American drone. | |
| And during these passes, the Pentagon claimed that the Russians were dumping jet fuel on top of the drone, and that during the last pass where they were dumping jet fuel, one of the Russian fighter jets actually struck the propeller of their American drone, causing it to eventually fall into the water. | |
| On the flip side, however, the Russians claimed that there was no use of weapons, nor any collision, and that the American drone just fell into the ocean, essentially due to the poor maneuvering capabilities of the American operators. | |
| And so these were the two competing narratives as of yesterday. | |
| However, now that we have the official drone footage in hand, well, it appears to corroborate the American side of the story. | |
| And so let's take a look at the footage together. | |
| And just for reference, this is what the MQ-9 Reaper drone looks like. | |
| And that bulb-shaped object right there, well, that's the camera that's actually recording the video. | |
| And so, let's watch it together. | |
| Now, this 43-second video has been edited for length, but upon its release, the U.S. military said that it does show the chain of events in sequential order. | |
| As you can see, one of the Russian fighter jets approaches the drone, and not once, but twice, it's shown to release a long plume of what appears to be jet fuel into the air while passing overhead. | |
| Then, as it's making one of these passes, as you can see, The Russian fighter jet appears to collide with the American drone, and at that point, the video feed becomes lost. | |
| And when the feed is reestablished, it's clear that one of the drone's propellers is visibly damaged. | |
| This then caused the U.S. operators, who are actually controlling the drone, to have to bring it down into the Black Sea. | |
| And so, there you have it. | |
| According to that declassified footage, it appears that the American side of the story was accurate. | |
| The Russians, indeed, dumped fuel on and hid the propeller of the $32 million American drone before it fell into the sea. | |
| Now, whether this was intentional or not, it appears that the consensus on the American side, at least the consensus that's being made public, is that it's not. | |
| For instance, U.S. officials, speaking under the condition of anonymity with NBC News, said that this, quote, was likely not intentional and likely the result of pilot error. | |
| Likewise, Mr. | |
| John Kirby, the spokesman for the National Security Council, he said this during an interview, Now, in terms of the fallout from this whole incident, well, you have the good, the bad, and the ugly. | |
| The good is that, for the first time in months, the U.S. Secretary of Defense had a phone call with his Russian counterpart in order to de-escalate tensions. | |
| Specifically, in a press briefing just yesterday, Secretary of Defense Mr. | |
| Lloyd Austin confirmed that he had a phone call with his Russian counterpart, Mr. | |
| Sergei Shogu. | |
| This, by the way, was the first call of its kind since October of last year, meaning it's been five full months since the two sides had direct contact. | |
| And so, that's the good part, that communications have been re-established, and based on their conversation, this incident with the downing of the American drone will not lead to direct escalation. | |
| However, the bad part is that I just got off the phone with my Russian counterpart, Minister Shogu. | |
| As I've said repeatedly, it's important that great powers be models of transparency and communication. | |
| This hazardous episode is part of a pattern of aggressive, risky, and unsafe actions by Russian pilots in international airspace. | |
| So make no mistake, the United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows. | |
| Meaning that the Pentagon is essentially doubling down on their right to fly in the Black Sea international airspace. | |
| Which is of course absolutely fine, it's absolutely legal since it is international airspace. | |
| But on the flip side, the Kremlin has stated that they have restricted additional airspace over the Black Sea while they're conducting their so-called special operation in Ukraine. | |
| Which is of course dubious as to whether they can actually do that or not. | |
| For instance, the Chinese claim that the entire South China Sea belongs to them, but that doesn't mean that it actually does. | |
| And furthermore, when you look at a map of where the American drone was actually intercepted by the Russians, it was about 100 miles away from Crimea, and in the context of the Black Sea, that is pretty far, since the entire thing is only about 200 miles wide. | |
| However, regardless of whether the Russians claim to have more airspace is legal or even feasible, the fact is that the Russians are currently belligerent, or at least they're belligerents in the current war, meaning that the stage is set for possibly another dangerous encounter. | |
| Because on the one side you have the U.S. doubling down on their flights in the Black Sea, the Russians are doubling down on their claims to more airspace, And this is all taking place ahead of the spring offensive, which we'll likely see renewed fighting over in Ukraine. | |
| And so this situation is the bad. | |
| The ugly, at least in my opinion, was the take of Senator Lindsey Graham, who went on to Fox News just yesterday. | |
| And when discussing this whole American drone situation, well, he floated the idea of sparking World War III. Here was him speaking to Sean Hannity just last night. | |
| They shot down our drone. | |
| What should our answer be? | |
| Well, we should hold them accountable and say that if you ever get near another U.S. set flying in international waters, your airplane would be shot down. | |
| What would Ronald Reagan do right now? | |
| He would start shooting Russian planes down if they were threatening our assets. | |
| Now, besides Senator Lindsey Graham's Hot take. | |
| The other piece of this puzzle is the wreckage. | |
| Because as of right now, well, the remains of a $32 million American drone is somewhere in the Black Sea. | |
| And at the moment, both the Russians and the Americans are racing to see who can recover it first. | |
| Although it appears that it might not even be feasible for anyone to recover it. | |
| That's because just yesterday, General Mark Milley, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he said during a press conference that the, quote, part of the Black Sea, where the drone landed, is as much as 5,000 feet deep. | |
| Meaning that it's not exactly clear whether anyone will be able to claim the wreckage. | |
| And so, this is where the current situation in the Black Sea stands. | |
| If you'd like to read more about what's happening, or watch that full declassified video that came out of the Pentagon, I'll throw all my research notes down into the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
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| And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times. | |
| Stay informed, and most importantly, stay free. |
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