The United States recognized the fact that the Russian air defense system destroyed the American UAV.

The American side accused the Russian military of destroying its reconnaissance-shock unmanned aerial vehicle and demanded to immediately return the wreckage of the drone shot down by the Pantsir-S1 air defense missile system.

“The US military believes that the Russian air defense system was shot down by an American drone, which disappeared in Libya at the end of November. This was indicated by several representatives of the African command of the US Armed Forces. They note that initially those who knocked out the UAV did not know that it belongs to the United States, but now that it has become known, the military is demanding that the wreckage of the aircraft be returned to them. At the same time, the representative of the Air Force of the African Command, Colonel Christopher Carns, told the publication that the US authorities believe that the drone shot the air defense system, which was controlled by either fighters of the Russian private military company (PMC) or the Libyan National Army (LNA) ) The latter is headed by Field Marshal Khalif Haftar. "- reports "Gazeta.ru".

Previously, satellite images were published with a rather unusual air defense system, which, although it resembles the Pantsir-S1E air defense system delivered to Libya, has a different color, which may indicate that the Pantsir belongs to the Russian military.

It should be clarified that according to the Bloomberg agency, there are several hundred Russian troops on the territory of Libya, while, according to a number of sources, Russian mercenaries have deployed Russian air defense systems to this country, making any strikes on the positions of Haftar's army practically useless.