Altercation follows incident last week in which a Russian fighter jet flew close to US surveillance plane with crew inside

Two Su-27 combat planes dump fuel on MQ-9 UAV conducting operations in international air space, then one strikes craft's propeller, causing it to crash, military says

Shahed-136 is a cheap alternative to cruise missiles at only $20,000 per unit, is being deployed by Russia in batches to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses

Recent Russian strikes, latest with supersonic 'Kinzhal' missiles, show existing systems — like the Patriot and S-300 — might not be enough to counter Moscow's arsenal

Despite overwhelming numerical superiority, Russia has so far failed to secure Ukraine's skies; experts call it 'one of the surprising elements' of the conflict