Kirby on Russian pilot who attacked US drone: "At best, he’s just idiot"
White House National Security Representative John Kirby called the Russian Su-27 fighter pilot, whom Shoigu awarded the Order of Courage for attacking the American MQ-9 Reaper drone, an idiot.
This is reported by Censor.NET with reference to Ukrinform.
"I don't know of any other army in the world, any other air force, that would reward a pilot for crashing into a drone. If that's bravery, they probably have a different understanding of it," he noted.
A representative of the White House called such an award nonsense. "We don't know if this pilot was trying to intentionally shoot down the drone or not, but he did, and the video evidence was pretty compelling," Kirby said.
He reminded that in the United States, pilots are not encouraged to crash into any obstacles.
"I have no idea why they awarded the bravery of a pilot who maliciously put himself and US property at risk, and at best was just an idiot," said a representative of the Biden administration.
On March 22, Defense Minister Serhiy Shoigu awarded the pilots who shot down the American drone. According to Inform Napalm, these are Sergey Popov and Vasiliy Vavilov.
As a reminder, on March 14, the US Air Force announced that the Russian Su-27 aircraft had been caught by the propeller of the American MQ-9 drone over the Black Sea, as a result of which American forces had to shoot down the MQ-9 in international waters.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that the American drone fell into the Black Sea due to its sharp maneuver, and the Russian fighter jets did not contact it.
However, later, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu presented the pilots who shot down an American drone over the Black Sea for state awards.
