WATCH: Military releases footage showing Russian fighter jet forcing down US drone over Black Sea

The U.S. military Has released footage showing a portion from the Tuesday encounter between two Russian Fighter jet pilots and the U.S. drone that they shot down.

The new classified VideoThe U.S. European Command released this video early Thursday. It depicts crucial moments in the midair incident that led to the downing of a. U.S. Air Force MQ-9 unmanned aircraft

RUSSIAN AIRCRAFT COLLIDES OVER UNMANNED US DRONE

This video was taken from the MQ-9 Reaper drone. The camera is pointed backwards towards its tail and propeller. The Russian Su-27 flew past the unmanned drone’s rear and began to pump fuel. The feed is temporarily interrupted as the Russian fighter jet passes over the drone, continuing to release fuel. The propeller was clearly visible when it returned seconds later.

The Russian jet returned for another approach and released fuel as it approached the drone. EUCOM reported that this time the Russian plane came close to the drone, and the video feed stopped for 60 seconds. The propeller appeared to be damaged after the camera resumed its feed.

The military was forced to crash-land it into the Black Sea. But they weren’t done wiping it of any sensitive data in case it fell into the wrong hands.

“It probably broke up, probably not a lot to recover, frankly,” General Mark Milley was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at a Wednesday briefing. “As far as the loss of anything of sensitive intelligence, etc., as normal we would take, and we did take, mitigating measures. So we are quite confident that whatever was of value is no longer of value.”

He said that it will take them days to determine if the military can recover the debris. “probably sank to some significant depths,” Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev stated that Russia would attempt to recover the drone’s wreckage.

Although this behavior is becoming more common among Russian pilots, it is still rare for a Russian pilot to crash into a U.S. drone. Milley stated that while it was clear that the Russian pilot intercepted a U.S. drone intentionally, it remains unclear if he intended to strike it.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“This hazardous episode is part of a pattern of aggressive, risky, risky and unsafe actions by Russian pilots in international airspace,” U.S. Secretary Of Defense Lloyd Austin During a Wednesday press conference.

Austin and Milley On Wednesday, they had conversations with their Russian counterparts. However neither of their offices provided details. U.S. summoned Russian Ambassador Anatoly. He denied the allegations, but U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Trace sent a similar message the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.