The representative of the National Security Council of the White House,

, criticized the Ministry of Defense of Russia for rewarding the pilots whose actions caused the fall of the American drone into the Black Sea.

"I don't know of another army in the world, another air force in the world that would reward a pilot for crashing into a drone.

If this is courage, then they probably have a different definition of the word.

It's senseless and offensive," the White House press office quoted Kirby as saying.

"We don't know if this pilot tried to ram the drone on purpose or not, but he did.

The video evidence was convincing enough.

In any case, in the flute where I grew up, you don't want to give anything away.

Hitting something is bad for you... I have no idea why they gave an award for bravery to a pilot who, at worst, was intentionally endangering himself and US property, and at best was just an idiot,” he added.

On March 22, Russian Defense Minister

presented the Order of Courage to the Su-27 pilots who intercepted the American drone over the Black Sea on March 14.

According to Shaigu, they "warned of the violation of the borders of the special operation by American drones."

As one of the award-winning pilots said, he and his colleague "performed maneuvers that tried to force him (the drone. — RS) to stop the execution of his task.

No weapons were used, no contact was made."

According to the US version, one of the Russian planes dropped fuel twice in front of the drone, and then hit and damaged it.

After that, the US Air Force allegedly sank the damaged drone.

The US European Command called the actions of the Russian pilots a "dangerous and unprofessional interception".