Russian pilots who downed MQ-9 Reaper over Black Sea tell their story

Russian pilots Vasily Vavilov and Sergey Popov, who intercepted the MQ-9 Reaper near the boundaries of the special operation zone over the Black Sea, said that they maneuvered the aircraft to force an unmanned aerial vehicle to stop its mission.

The Ministry of Defense published the video of their story on Telegram.

According to the pilots, they were on air defense duty when they were ordered to take off. The pilots — two Su-27 crews — went on the mission to intercept the American drone.

"After the takeoff, we approached the UAV, identified it and performed manoeuvres to force it to abandon its mission,” Vavilov said.

In turn, Popov stressed that the pilots neither used weapons nor came into contact with the US-made UAV.

On March 22, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu personally awarded Vavilov and Popov the Order of Courage for preventing the US drone from violating the boundaries of the special military operation zone.