Former U.S. Amb. to NATO Kurt Volker says the Russian fighter jet collision was'intentional' and requires a'firm response' from the U.S. The Russian government has awarded the pilots involved in the harassment and crash of a U.S. drone in international airspace. Russian minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu presented state awards to the fighter jet pilots responsible for downing a U.S. drone over the Black Sea earlier this week. Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, left, attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the Eternal Flame and the Unknown Soldier's Grave in Alexander Garden during an event marking Defender of the Fatherland Day in Moscow. In an official statement, the Ministry of Defense commended the pilots for preventing the drone from "violating the boundaries of the temporary airspace regime established for the special military operation." The statement accuses the U.S. drone of flying with its transponders off.

Fox News correspondent Mike Tobin has the latest on tensions amid the Russia-Ukraine war on'Special Report.' The Russians planned the Black Sea drone attack carefully, probably for weeks. And watch out, China could try it next. As the admiral played by the late Sen. Fred D. Thompson said to Alec Baldwin's character in the classic movie "The Hunt for Red October," "The Russians don't do anything without a plan." Somebody on the Russian side thought this through.

In October last year, a Russian news site published a short video of Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary army, sitting with four men on a rooftop terrace in the resort town of Gelendzhik, on Russia's Black Sea coast. Two are missing parts of a leg. A third lost an arm. They are identified as pardoned former convicts, returned from the front in Ukraine after joining Wagner from prison. "You were an offender, now you're a war hero," Prigozhin tells one man in the clip. It was the first video to depict the return of some of the thousands of convicts who joined Wagner in return for the promise of a pardon if they survived six months of the war. Reuters news agency used facial recognition software to examine this video and more than a dozen others and photographs of homecoming convict fighters, published between October 2022 and February 2023.

It is "highly unlikely" Russia will find anything useful if it manages to recover a U.S. surveillance drone from the deep waters of the Black Sea where it crashed earlier this week after colliding with a Russian fighter jet, the Pentagon said Thursday. Gen. Pat Ryder comes amid reports that Russia was making an effort to recover the MQ-9 Reaper drone's debris. Ryder reiterated Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley's assertion that no sensitive material was compromised in the drone incident. "We do have indications that Russia's likely making an effort to try to recovery MQ-9 debris," Ryder said. "However, we assess it's very unlikely that they would be able to recovery anything useful, given a couple of factors."

Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker says the Russian fighter jet collision was'intentional' and requires a'firm response' from the U.S. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has yet to comment publicly on the downing of a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone by two Russian SU-27 fighter jets this week, in what one NATO expert says may be an "overabundance of caution." "There should be broad condemnation of Russia's attack on the U.S. drone by all NATO Allies," Marshall Billingslea, a former deputy undersecretary of the Navy and assistant secretary general for defense investment at NATO, who is now serving as a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told Fox News Digital. "Many, especially those allies on the eastern front, have experience with Russian pilots engaging in aggressive and unprofessional actions." NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during the annual Society and Defence Conference in Salen, Sweden, on Jan. 8, 2023. The U.S. has accused Russia of purposefully harassing and then striking down the $32 million drone used for intelligence collecting.

U.S. CENTCOM Commander Gen. Michael Kurilla told senators Thursday that the Pentagon has seen an "increase recently in the unprofessional and unsafe behavior of the Russian Air Force." U.S. Central Command has seen more "unprofessional" and "unsafe" behavior from Russian pilots in Syria since March 1, a commander said Thursday. Gen. Michael Kurilla explained the ongoing harassment of U.S. forces in the region at a meeting of the Senate Committee on Armed Services. Gen. Michael Kurilla testifies during his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing in 2022. "What we are seeing, though, is an increase recently in the unprofessional and unsafe behavior of the Russian Air Force in the region," Kurilla stated.

The Pentagon on Thursday released footage of what it said was a Russian aircraft pouring fuel on a U.S. Air Force surveillance drone and clipping the drone's propeller in international airspace over the Black Sea. The 42-second video shows a Russian Su-27 approaching the back of the MQ-9 drone and beginning to release fuel as it passes, the Pentagon said. Dumping the fuel appeared to be aimed at blinding its optical instruments and driving it out of the area. On a second approach, either the same jet or another Russian fighter that had been shadowing the MQ-9 struck the drone's propeller, damaging one blade, according to the U.S. military. The U.S. military said it ditched the MQ-9 Reaper in the sea after what it described as the Russian fighter making an unsafe intercept of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

U.S. European Command on Thursday released video of a Russian Su-27 fighter jet colliding with a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea, March 14. Russian vessels have already arrived at the drone crash site in the Black Sea, a U.S. defense official tells Fox News. Almost immediately after the MQ-9 drone was clipped by a Su-27 fighter jet and downed into the water, Russia sent ships to search the debris field. "They wasted no time," the defense official told Fox News. U.S. European Command on Thursday released video of a Russian Su-27 fighter jet colliding with a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea, March 14.

Fox News correspondent Mike Tobin has the latest on tensions amid the Russia-Ukraine war on'Special Report.' EXCLUSIVE: House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul called Russia's interception of a U.S. drone a "blatant intimidation tactic," and stressed the need for the United States to continue its support for Ukraine and security efforts in the region. A Russian Su-27 fighter plane collided with a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone, which was conducting "routine operations" over the Black Sea on Tuesday. The jet in question was one of two Su-27's flying in tandem when the collision occurred in international airspace over international waters. "To be clear, the Black Sea is not a Russian lake. The U.S. surveillance drone intercepted by a Russian aircraft was operating in international airspace," McCaul told Fox News Digital.

The United States military has released footage it says is of an unsafe intercept of a US drone by a Russian jet over the Black Sea. The US on Tuesday alleged that a Russian Su-27 fighter jet collided with one of its Reaper surveillance drones in international airspace, forcing it to crash into the sea. Russia denied it deliberately brought the unmanned aerial vehicle down. VIDEO: Two #Russian Su-27s conducted an unsafe & unprofessional intercept w/a @usairforce intelligence, surveillance & reconnaissance unmanned MQ-9 operating w/i international airspace over the #BlackSea March 14. https://t.co/gMbKYNtIeQ The declassified 42-second footage released by the US European Command shows the Su-27 fighter jet approaching the back of the MQ-9 drone, the Pentagon said.