Russia denied that its fighter jets had come into contact with a US military drone that Washington accused Moscow of bringing down in international airspace over the Black Sea.

“On the morning of March 14 … the airspace surveillance of the Russian Aerospace Forces recorded the flight of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) US MQ -9 toward the state border of the Russian Federation,” a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said on Wednesday.

The statement said that Russian Air Force fighter jets had taken off to identify the drone and that it later turned into an uncontrolled flight, lost altitude and crashed into the water after a series of sharp maneuvers.

“Russian fighter jets did not use any on-board weapons, did not come into contact with the unmanned aerial vehicle and returned safely to their base airfield,” it concluded

On the US side, the Pentagon had previously announced that a Russian SU -27 fighter jet collided with the Reaper drone, bringing down the American aircraft.

CURRENTPH NEWS SERVICE