Drone downing is latest in US-Russia confrontations. Here's a list of past faceoffs

On Tuesday (March 14), a Russian Su-27 fighter jet forced down a United States MQ-9 (Reaper) drone over the Black Sea. Following the collision, US officials called the crash "reckless." The US State Department summoned the Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov over the incident. Responding to Washington's claims, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warned that the relations between the two countries are at their lowest. But lowest since when? The Black Sea collision is not the first confrontation between the two, and there have been multiple, and much worse, incidents. Below are some of the worst US-Russia confrontations in the recent past:

During the times of erstwhile Soviet Union, there have been several nuclear close calls during the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis and many more. The downing of the U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers in 1960 is the most famous incidentthatcreated major embarrassment for the US.

Why was the US drone flying over the Black Sea?

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The United States reconnaissance missions have been a regular practice over the Black Sea and the area has been heavily militarised since Russia annexed Crimea in the year 2014.

Why the fury over the downing of Reaper? The ongoing war in Ukraine is one reason, where the Russians for instance have capitalised on Kyiv and has caused damage worth billions of dollars.

US-Russia conflicts:

In February 2018, a US contingent in eastern Syria clashed with a force advancing their military base including members of Russia's private military group "Wagner."However, Moscow back then denied the existence of its mercenary group but also highlighted the presence of a long stand "deconfliction line" between the US and Russia.

The United States also called for air strikes and artillery on the other group, killing dozens of Wagner mercenaries and the Syrian allies. As per CNN, the battle between the two was the deadliestencounter between US forces and Russian fighters since the end of the Cold War in the 1990s.

Another instance was the Korean war when the US fighter pilots engaged in several aerial combats against Soviet MiGs. Washington even carried out several surveillance flights.

One of the declassified instances was the one that occurred in Soviet Armenia, where the downing of Flight 60528, a US C-130 on a spy mission killed 17 people.

The US also acknowledged that over 40 reconnaissance aircraft were shot down between 1945 and 1977 on such spy missions.