Two US strategic bombers B-52 were intercepted on Monday by a Russian fighter jet Su-35 from reaching the Russian border over the Baltic Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry's National Defense Control Center (NDCC) announced.

"On March 20, 2023, the radars of the air defense forces of the Western Military District on duty detected two air targets flying in the direction of the state border of the Russian Federation over the Baltic Sea," the NDCC confirmed in a statement.

"The targets were identified as two strategic bombers B-52N of the US Air Force," the statement indicated.

It said that "after the removal of foreign military aircraft from the Russian state border, the Russian fighter returned to its base airfield."

'Reckless and unprofessional'

The interception comes mere days after the US European Command issued a statement on March 14 saying that "a Russian Su-27 aircraft struck the propeller of a U.S. MQ-9 drone, causing U.S. forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters."

The Command claimed that "several times before the collision, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner."

On its part, the Russian Defense Ministry denied US allegations and said its fighter jets did not come into contact with the US MQ-9 drone that crashed into the Black Sea earlier, pointing out that the drone crashed due to "sharp maneuvering".

The Ministry clarified that on Tuesday morning, the airspace control of the Russian Aerospace Forces had recorded the flight of the US unmanned aerial vehicle MQ-9 over the Black Sea in the region of the Crimean peninsula in the direction of the Russian state border.

The flight of the drone "was carried out with transponders turned off, violating the boundaries of the area of the temporary regime for the use of airspace, established for the purpose of conducting a special military operation, communicated to all users of international airspace and published in accordance with international standards," the statement read.

Following the incident, the US State Department confirmed that it summoned Russia's Ambassador to protest the crash.

Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley revealed the next day that the US still does not know if the downing of a US drone over the Black Sea was intentional.

"So, was it intentional or not? Don't know yet. We know that the intercept was intentional. We know that the aggressive behavior was intentional. We also know it was very unprofessional and very unsafe," Milley said during a press briefing.

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