LogFAQs > #972170067

Russia's official response is now that the drone violated their "special military airspace" and crashed on its own without the pilots doing anything at all:

We're now hearing for the first time from the Russian defence ministry on the incident.

Moscow is insisting its aircraft did not use on-board weapons or come into contact with the drone.

They say Russia airspace control systems detected a US MQ-9 unmanned drone flying over the Black Sea, near the Crimean Peninsula, in the direction of the border of the Russian Federation.
They accused the US of violating the boundaries of its temporary airspace "established for the special military operation".

Russia says it scrambled its aircraft to identify the intruder, but due to quick manoeuvring, the MQ-9 drone went into an "unguided flight with a loss of altitude and collided with the water surface".