Experience vs. Opportunity: Understanding Recruiters’ Hidden Filters

Experienced professionals aren’t rejected; they’re misinterpreted. This infographic breaks down the hidden recruiter filters shaping today’s hiring decisions. Understand the gap. Fix the positioning. Improve callbacks. Learn how a #career #coaching #crash #course can turn experience into interviews.

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Stuck in the Same Role for Years? How the Best Career Coach Helps You Break Career Plateaus

Feeling stuck in the same role year after year can be frustrating. You work hard, deliver results, and yet nothing changes - no promotion, no meaningful growth, no excitement. Career plateaus don’t happen overnight. They slowly creep in when routines replace challenges and comfort replaces progress. The tricky part? Many professionals don’t even realize they’re plateaued until motivation starts slipping.

A career plateau isn’t always about lack of skill. Often, it’s about lack of direction. You may be excellent at your job, but unclear about your next move. Should you aim for leadership? Switch roles? Upskill? Or pivot industries entirely? Without clarity, people stay where they are - hoping something will change.

This is where guidance matters. In the middle of this reflection, many professionals begin to understand the real value of the #best #career #coach https://sareencareercoachi... . Not someone who gives generic advice, but someone who helps you identify blind spots, strengths you’ve underused, and opportunities you’ve overlooked. A good coach asks the right questions - ones you may never ask yourself - about your long-term goals, work satisfaction, and growth potential.

Breaking a plateau often involves redefining success. It might mean building new skills, repositioning your professional brand, or learning how to communicate your impact better. Sometimes, it’s about unlearning habits that kept you “safe” but stagnant. With the right perspective, even small shifts can create momentum.

Many professionals exploring this phase come across resources like #Sareen #career #coaching , where the focus is on understanding career patterns rather than chasing quick fixes. The key takeaway remains the same: progress starts when you step back, reassess, and act intentionally.

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Breaking a career plateau isn’t about drastic change - it’s about making the right change at the right time.

Legal Rights After Suffering a Defective Airbag Injury

Airbags are intended to protect drivers and passengers during a collision, but when they malfunction, the consequences can be severe and life-changing. A defective airbag can turn a survivable crash into a catastrophic event, leading to serious injuries, major financial expenses, and long-term complications that affect every part of a victim’s life. Understanding your legal rights after such an injury is crucial. Whether the airbag failed to deploy, deployed too forcefully, or exploded due to a manufacturing defect, you may have the right to pursue compensation.

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Job Search Crash Course: Struggling to Land Your Dream Job?

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How a Job Search Crash Course Can Transform Your Career: Insights from Sanyam Sareen, the Best Career Coach

Looking for a job can feel overwhelming in today's fast-paced, ever-changing job market. Between ATS filters, behavioral interviews, and shifting expectations, it's easy to feel lost or invisible. In this blog, Sanyam Sareen offers a practical, crash-course approach to job searching, providing the guidance you need to navigate the modern hiring process. Whether you're sending out your 50th application or just starting, this blog will help you stand out with strategies designed by someone who understands hiring from all angles. Ready to make your job search work for you?

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'Gloom' over Trump economy hits worst levels 'since the Great Recession': report
Story by Alex Henderson

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), unemployment in the United States was at 4.2 percent in July — which is far from a recession. But the BLS also found that the U.S. is hurting in terms of job creation; the 4.2 percent figure largely reflects Americans who are holding on to jobs they already have rather than starting new jobs. And President Donald Trump was so angry over the BLS' job creation data that he fired ex-BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer and nominated a MAGA loyalist for the position: E.J. Antoni, known for his work with the Heritage Foundation.

In an article published on August 16, Axios' Courtenay Brown lays out some reasons why so many Americans are feeling "gloomy" about the economy.

"Americans haven't been this gloomy about the job market since the Great Recession," Brown reports. "Why it matters: Fears about joblessness have surged since President Trump unveiled plans to impose steep tariffs on foreign goods. The economy might have hit a soft patch, but it has so far dodged the bleak predictions from a few months ago."

Nonetheless, Brown notes that "consumers are still bracing for the worst to come."

"As of early August," Brown explains, "that pessimism was in step with that of the 2008 financial crisis. About 62 percent of consumers believe unemployment will worsen in the year ahead, according to the University of Michigan's latest monthly survey. That's bounced around a little in the last few months, but consistently hung around levels not seen since the Great Recession…. The concerns about higher unemployment are paired with worries about an inflation resurgence."

The University of Michigan's consumer report was released on August 15.

Joanne Hsu, the report's director, is quoted as saying, "Although CPI inflation has not surged, our data show that consumers are still bracing for an increase in inflation to come. Moreover, consumers are also concerned that labor markets will weaken."

Brown notes that The Great Recession was the United States' "worst economic downturn since the Great Depression."

When the stock market crashed in 1929, U.S. unemployment was only 3.2 percent, according to Investopedia. By 1932, it was up to 23 percent. Americans were so angry about the economy that year that Democratic presidential nominee Franklin Delano Roosevelt defeated incumbent GOP President Herbert Hoover by a landslide and picked up a whopping 472 electoral votes.

The Great Recession wasn't as severe as The Great Depression, but Brown recalls that in late 2008 and 2009, "The stock market was falling off a cliff, unemployment filings soared and the jobless rate would ultimately peak at 10 percent."

Brown continues, "Now: The economy is slowing, though fears are worse than the official data suggests so far. The unemployment rate is holding at a historically low 4.2 percent, as of July. Hiring has stalled, but so have layoffs. There are fewer unemployment filings now than in July 2021, when a record-low share of Americans (14 percent) said they anticipated higher unemployment in the year ahead."

Daily Mail
Russia loses four aircraft shot out of the sky on Putin's side of the Ukraine border

Story by Will Stewart • 14-5-2023

Russian Telegram channel Military Informer said: 'According to preliminary information, the helicopters lost in the sky of the Bryansk region were Mi-8MTPR-1 electronic warfare helicopters with Rychag-AV active jamming stations installed on board.

'The Rychag-AV complexes were created to interfere with the guidance of air defence systems and enemy aircraft, preventing the use of anti-aircraft and aircraft missiles at a distance of more than 100 kilometres [62 miles].

'However, today the Mi-8MTPR-1s turned out to be too close to the border.'

The helicopters were assisting the Su-34 bomber for an operation over Chernihiv region in Ukraine, while the Su-35 fighter was providing cover.

The Russian warplanes and helicopters were shot down from Chernihiv region, reported Readovka.

Ukrainian official Anton Gerashchenko suggested that the four aircraft were downed by Russia's own air defence systems in a friendly fire incident.

Russian Telegram channel VChK also cited a source saying the planes may have been downed by air defences on the border.

There was no official statement from Russia clarifying what had happened.

This comes just a day after another Russian military helicopter crashed in Moscow-annexed Crimea during a training exercise.

Russia's defence ministry announced that the two pilots in the aircraft were killed following the incident on Friday.

The preliminary finding was it was due to mechanical failure, the statement said.

'During a scheduled training flight in the Djankoi district in Crimea, an Mi-28 helicopter crashed,' it said, adding that the helicopter had not been carrying ammunition and there had been no damage on the ground.

'The two pilots are dead,' it said.

The Mi-28 is a multi-task military helicopter capable of staging devastating attacks.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and used it as a launchpad for military operation in Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia says it has repelled several drone or missile attacks in Crimea in recent days.

In August 2022, the Djankoi military base was devastated after explosions at a munitions depot that Russia said was due to sabotage.

Ukraine said in March that an explosion there had destroyed Russian Kalibr cruise missiles, a claim denied by Moscow.

Daily Mail
Russia loses four aircraft shot out of the sky on Putin's side of the Ukraine border

Story by Will Stewart • 14-5-2023

The helicopters and fighter jets were said to be flying near Bryansk, Russia

Reports indicated a Su-34 and Su-35 jet and two Mi-8 helicopters were downed

Two Russian warplanes and two military helicopters appear to have been shot out of the sky today close to the border with Ukraine in suspected missile strikes.

Videos posted on Russian social media on Saturday appeared to show the fighter jets and helicopters being downed over the Bryansk region, bordering Ukraine.

Reports indicated a Su-34 supersonic fighter-bomber and a Su-35 single-seater fighter were downed.

Two Mi-8 helicopters were shot down, one over Klintsy, a town in Bryansk region, and the other close to Volkustichi village in Unechsky district, it was reported.

While some reports have disputed the number of planes and helicopters downed - instead saying there were three in total - the Mash and Baza media outlets, with links to the authorities, said that the total number of downed aircraft was four. They added that all had been returning from a combat mission.

War channels reported two warplanes and two helicopters, with at least four crew killed.

Russian reports say the pilot and navigator in the Su-34, which crashed in the village of Istrovka near Starodub, failed to eject and were killed.

Videos showed a missile hitting one Mi-8 helicopter which exploded, plunging to the earth in flames.

Crew on the helicopters were also killed, reports said.

In one of the pieces of footage, the helicopter appears to have been struck side-on as a gush of flames erupts through the rotorcraft leaving a trail of black smoke.

Some reports claimed the incident - which was said to have occurred around 40 miles (around 64km) from the Ukraine border - was a result of friendly fire after being struck by a Kremlin missile.

Earlier TASS cited an emergency services source saying: 'The Su-34 crashed near the Ukrainian border. The fate of those on board is being established..'

Telegram account Rybar claimed that two Russian helicopters and one Su-34 fighter jet had crashed in Bryansk region.

But channel Ostorozhno Novosti reported that the second 'crashed helicopter' was in fact the Su-34.

One woman was injured on the ground.

It is not known what missiles were used.

But Ukraine has started deploying British-supplied Storm Shadow air to ground cruise missiles, with strikes in Russian-occupied Luhansk region on Friday, which were reported today.

The Russian media initially claimed that the downed helicopter in footage had suffered engine fire rather than being hit by a missile.

The strikes triggered fury from Russian pro-war pundits who allege Putin's high command has failed to properly prosecute the war.

Igor 'Strelkov Girkin - long a campaigner for all mobilisation and martial law - said sarcastically: 'Today's heavy losses by our aviation in the Bryansk region as a result of the actions of the enemy prompted some bloggers to a brilliant and completely unexpected idea that we must fight the enemy.

'Well, who would have thought?'

He blames the Kremlin for not declaring a full-scale war or putting Russian on a war footing.

Reuters
China's aircraft carriers play 'theatrical' role but pose little threat yet

Story by By Greg Torode, Eduardo Baptista and Tim Kelly • 3h ago - 5-5-2023

By Greg Torode, Eduardo Baptista and Tim Kelly

HOPES AND SHORTCOMINGS

Chinese military and government researchers appear aware of the challenges, according to a Reuters review of over 100 recent articles published in dozens of publicly available Chinese defence journals.

The official PLA Daily in October published an interview with an aircraft carrier aviation unit where the deputy chief of staff, Dai Xing, acknowledged "many shortcomings in preparing for war", and a gap between sailors' training level and combat requirements.

A September editorial published in a magazine run by a PLA weapons manufacturer, titled "Four great advantages the PLA has in attacking Taiwan", did not mention the role of Chinese carriers. Instead, it said, China's land-based ballistic missiles would be enough to overwhelm potential intervention from U.S. carriers.

Two earlier editorials in the same publication, Tank and Armoured Vehicle, noted that China's carriers would remain in their infancy for the foreseeable future and that other surface ships would be more useful in a conflict in the East China Sea.

Other articles in similar publications outline pilot recruitment and training problems, vulnerabilities to submarine attack and command issues - which some foreign analysts say is a problem for a navy that still sails with political commissars with executive authority.

When at sea, U.S. carriers fly almost constantly, routinely operating fighter, electronic-warfare and surveillance aircraft to create a protective screen around the battlegroup.

Beyond the expense and danger of such operations, one key element is mastering devolved command systems, particularly in a crisis such as a fire or crash onboard when planes are airborne and the flight deck is disabled.

The U.S. has spent decades perfecting such systems, having expanded carrier operations after their importance was highlighted in the Allied victory over Japan in the Pacific in World War Two.

"The continuous operation of its carriers sits at the very core of what makes the U.S. military absolutely preeminent," said Singapore-based defence analyst Alexander Neill, an adjunct fellow with Hawaii's Pacific Forum think tank.

In the medium term, China is likely to start sending battlegroups into the Indian Ocean, where China's presence is minimal beyond routine submarine operations, the attaches and defence analysts said.

Operating far from the security of land-based airfields would test China's capability, but preparations are underway.

The pier at China's first major offshore military base in Djibouti was recently extended, and could now fit a carrier, the Pentagon report noted.

(Reporting by Greg Torode in Hong Kong, Eduardo Baptista in Beijing and Tim Kelly in Tokyo; additional reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart in Washington; editing by David Crawshaw and Gerry Doyle)

Reuters
Russia accuses Ukraine of attempt to kill Putin with drones

Story by Reuters • Yesterday 11:34 pm - 3-5-2023

MOSCOW/KYIV (Reuters) -Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of a failed attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin in a drone attack on the Kremlin citadel in Moscow and said it reserved the right to retaliate.

A senior aide to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Kyiv had nothing to do with the reported incident, which he said could be used by the Kremlin to justify a new attack on Ukraine.

"Two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services with the use of radar warfare systems, the devices were put out of action," the Kremlin said in a statement.

"We regard these actions as a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the president's life, carried out on the eve of Victory Day, the May 9 Parade, at which the presence of foreign guests is also planned," it said.

It said fragments of the drones were scattered in the Kremlin grounds but there were no injuries or damage.

Putin himself was safe.

"The Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit," the Kremlin added.

Video posted by Baza, a Telegram channel with links to Russia's law enforcement agencies, showed a flying object approaching the dome of a Kremlin building overlooking Red Square and exploding in a burst of light just before reaching it. Seats could be seen set up for the Victory Day parade.

Other video posted on a neighbourhood internet group appeared to show a plume of smoke over the Kremlin spires filmed from across the Moskva River.

Reuters could not independently verify the videos.

DRONE WAR

Elsewhere, oil depots were ablaze in both southern Russia and Ukraine, as both sides escalated a drone war ahead of Kyiv's looming spring counteroffensive.

Scores of firefighters battled a huge fire that Russian authorities blamed on a Ukrainian drone crashing into an oil terminal on Russia's side of its bridge to occupied Crimea. A fuel depot in Ukraine was ablaze after a suspected Russian drone strike on the central city of Kropyvnytskyi.

An administrative building in Ukraine's southern Dnipropetrovsk region was also hit by a drone and set on fire. Ukraine said it had shot down 21 of 26 Iranian-made drones in an overnight volley, shielding targets in the capital Kyiv where air raid sirens blared for hours through the night.

Ukraine's Zelenskiy was greeted by cheering crowds in Finland's capital Helsinki, where he arrived on a rare trip abroad to meet Nordic leaders who have been some of Ukraine's strongest supporters.

Ukraine and Russia have both been launching long-range strikes since last week in apparent anticipation of Ukraine's upcoming counteroffensive, which Zelenskiy said would begin soon.

After a lull of nearly two months, Russia began a new wave of long range attacks with missiles last Friday, including one that killed 23 civilians while they slept in an apartment building in the city of Uman hundreds of miles from the front.

Since then, a suspected Ukrainian drone strike caused a fire at a Russian oil terminal in occupied Crimea, Russia hit dozens of homes and an industrial enterprise in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, and blasts derailed freight trains in Russia's Bryansk region adjacent to Ukraine two days in a row.

Popular Science
Australia wants a laser weapon powerful enough to stop a tank

Story by Kelsey D. Atherton • 6h ago - 3-5-2023

On April 4, Australia’s Department of Defence announced the award of $12.9 million to defense giant QinetiQ for a laser weapon. The move followed years of work and interest by Australia’s government in developing lasers for the battlefields of tomorrow. What is most ambitious about the Australian research into laser weapons is not the modest funding to QinetiQ, but a powerful goal set by the Department of Defence in 2020: Australia wants a laser weapon powerful enough to stop a tank.

Laser weapons, more broadly referred to as directed energy, are a science fiction concept with a profoundly mundane reality. Instead of the flashy beams or targeted phasers of Star Wars or Star Trek, lasers work most similarly to a magnifying lens held to fry a dry leaf, concentrating photons into an invisible beam that destroys with heat and time. Unlike the child’s tool for starting fires, modern directed energy weapons derive their power from electricity, either generated on site or stored in batteries.

Most of the work of laser weapons, in development and testing, has so far focused on relatively small and fragile targets, like drones, missiles, or mortar rounds. Lasers are energy intensive. When PopSci had a chance to try using a 10-kilowatt laser against commercial drones, it still took seconds to destroy each target, a process aided by all the sensors and accouterments of a targeting pod. Because lasers are concentrated heat energy over time, cameras to track targets, and gimbals to hold and stabilize the beam against the target, all ensure that as much of the beam as possible stays focused. Once part of a drone was burned through, the whole system would crash to the ground, gravity completing the task.

Tanks, by design and definition, are the opposite of lightly armored and fragile flying machines. That makes Australia’s plan to destroy tanks by laser all the more daring.

Tanks for the idea

In the summer of 2020, Australia’s Department of Defence released a strategy called the 2020 Force Structure Plan. This document, like similar versions in other militaries, offers a holistic vision of what kinds of conflicts the country is prepared to fight in the future. Because the strategy is also focused on procurement, it offers useful insight into the weapons and vehicles the military will want to buy to meet those challenges.

The tank-killing laser comes in the section on Land Combat Support. “A future program to develop a directed energy weapon system able to be integrated onto [Australian Defence Forces] protected and armoured vehicles, and capable of defeating armoured vehicles up to and including main battle tanks. The eventual deployment of directed energy weapons may also improve land force resilience by reducing the force’s dependence on ammunition stocks and supply lines,” reads the strategy.

An armored vehicle in Australia in 2016.
© Mandaline Hatch / US Marine Corps.

Washington Examniner
How and why the US must prevent Russia from downing more drones

by Tom Rogan, National Security Writer & Online Editor | March 16, 2023 03:34 PM

Although it seems to have been accidental, Russia downed a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone operating in international airspace on Tuesday. The question: How to prevent a similar incident from occurring in the future?

The question needs answering. For a start, each MQ-9 costs approximately $18-$32 million.

Tuesday's loss occurred when two Su-27 Russian naval aviation or air force fighter jets intercepted the drone over the Black Sea. Dumping fuel into its flight path, the Russians evidently sought to disrupt the drone's intelligence-gathering activities and harass its remote operators. One Russian pilot apparently then miscalculated and flew into the drone, forcing its operators to send it crashing into the Sea.

We can be confident, albeit not certain, that the downing was accidental.

After all, the risk to the Russians was significant. Had the Russians wanted to bring the drone down with surety, they could have simply fired upon it. Russian media reports, which should be judged with caution, claiming that the drone has been located at a depth of 800 meters. The U.S. insists it wiped the drone's data core, but if they have located the drone, the Russians might be able to recover valuable intelligence related to its processing, imaging, and sensor systems.

Thus far, the Biden administration has dealt with this mini-crisis via diplomatic protests and warnings that it must not be repeated. The Russians, however, will likely view that response as timid.

While Vladimir Putin has no interest in a direct military conflict with the U.S. or NATO, he is a strategic opportunist who is willing to take risks. Amid rising statements of skepticism about the Biden administration's Ukraine policy from the leading presumptive candidates to replace Biden, Donald Trump, and Ron DeSantis, Putin may regard Biden's response here as an indication he is increasingly cautious over the war.

That U.S. P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft appear to have kept within Romanian airspace during recent Black Sea operations may also fuel Putin's sense that he can escalate. After all, the P-8s could presumably better accomplish their mission if they were actually flying over the Black Sea.

U.S. resumes drone flights over Black Sea after Russia intercept

Story by Reuters • 6h ago - 18-3-2023

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has resumed surveillance drone flights over the Black Sea region following a Russian fighter jet intercept on Tuesday that led to the downing of a U.S surveillance drone, two U.S. officials said on Friday.

An RQ-4 Global Hawk flew a mission to the region on Friday, the officials said, with one adding that it was the first such drone flight since the Tuesday incident. Pentagon officials have repeatedly stressed this week the incident would not stop Washington from flying such missions.

Still, the downing of a U.S. MQ-9 drone on Tuesday was the first direct U.S.-Russian incident since the Ukraine war began, worsening already tense relations between Washington and Moscow as both countries publicly traded blame.

Russia has denied U.S. accusations that its two Su-24 fighter jets acted recklessly around the unmanned U.S. aircraft, and instead has blamed "sharp maneuvering" by the drone for the crash.

However, the Pentagon released a video on Thursday showing a Russian Su-27 fighter jet coming very close to the drone and dumping fuel near it, in what U.S. officials said was an apparent effort to damage the American aircraft as it flew.

It also showed the loss of the video feed after another close Russian maneuver, which the Pentagon said resulted from a Russian jet colliding with the drone.

The video ends with images of the drone's damaged propeller, which the Pentagon said was caused by the collision, making the aircraft inoperable and leading it to crash into deep waters.

The incident over international waters was a reminder of the risk of direct confrontation between the United States and Russia over Ukraine, which Moscow invaded more than a year ago and which Western allies have supported with intelligence and weapons.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

Russia plans to recover wreckage of US drone downed over Black Sea

The Guardian - News - 17-3-2023

US says any recovery operation in such deep water would be difficult and unlikely to yield useful intelligence

The defence secretary said the incident would not deter the US from flying in the area. “We will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows,” he said, calling on Russia to operate its aircraft in a “safe and professional manner”.

The Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu told Austin that Washington’s “increased” intelligence gathering against Russia had led to the drone incident. The ministry in Moscow also warned that it would react “proportionately” to any future US “provocations”.

It is the first recorded collision of a US and Russia or Soviet aircraft since the second world war. In 1987, there was an incident involving a Soviet Su-27 and a Norwegian P-3 Orion maritime surveillance plane, in which one of the Soviet plane’s fins struck one of the Norwegian plane’s propellers. According to some accounts, the Soviet pilot also dumped fuel on the P-3’s fuselage, but both planes were able to land safely.

In April 2001, a Chinese fighter jet collided with a US EP-3 spy plane off the Chinese coast, causing the Chinese plane to crash and the US plane to make a forced landing on China’s Hainan Island, sparking a diplomatic crisis.

Tuesday’s incident has revived a bipartisan push in Congress for the US to develop a more assertive Black Sea strategy.

“We cannot leave it up to Putin, who chose to invade Ukraine and pursue other forms of aggression in the region, to define the rules of the Black Sea,” the Republican senator Mitt Romney, one of the co-sponsors of a bill that would strengthen the US strategy in the region, said. “It’s critical that the Biden administration develops a robust Black Sea strategy to strengthen the coordination between the US, Nato and our Black Sea partners.”

Daily Mail
Russian pilots who destroyed US drone are honored by Defense Minister

The Russian pilots of two Su-27 fighter planes that destroyed an American drone have been honored by Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. The $32 million MQ-9 Reaper drone crashed into the Black Sea on Tuesday after being intercepted by the two Russian fighter jets, in what U.S. officials have said was a deliberate act, possibly in an attempt to seize its data. Pictured: An image from the drone shows the Russian fighter jet dumping fuel on the MQ-9 Reaper.

©US European Command/ZUMA Press Wire Service/Shutterstock

Russian defence minister decorates pilots for downing U.S. drone

Story by Reuters • Yesterday 8:48 pm - 17-3-2023

LONDON (Reuters) - Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has presented awards to the pilots of two Su-27 fighter planes that intercepted a U.S. drone near the airspace around Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, his ministry said on Friday.

The drone crashed into the Black Sea on Tuesday after being intercepted by Russian jets, in the first known direct military encounter between Russia and the United States since Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago.

Announcing the awards, the ministry repeated Russia's version of events - disputed by Washington - that the Russian planes did not make physical contact with the drone.

"As a result of sharp manoeuvring around 9:30 a.m. (Moscow time), the MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle went into uncontrolled flight with a loss of altitude and collided with the water surface," it said.

It said the drone had been flying with its transponders turned off and violating airspace restrictions that Russia had made public in connection with what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine.

The U.S. military had said the Russian fighter planes approached its MQ-9 Reaper drone during a reconnaissance mission over the Black Sea in international airspace. It said the fighters harassed the drone and sprayed fuel on it in an encounter lasting 30-40 minutes before one clipped the drone's propeller, causing it to crash into the sea.

The Pentagon on Thursday released a 40-second edited video showing a Russian fighter jet coming close to a U.S. military drone in the air, dumping fuel near it, and a damaged propeller in the aftermath. The top U.S. general said the incident demonstrated Moscow’s increasingly aggressive behaviour.

View from USAF MQ-9 drone during incident over Black Sea
© Thomson Reuters