A flurry of irony erupted on social media after Russia released images of the two pilots responsible for downing a US MQ-9 Reaper drone in early March.

A favorite target of irony was Serhiy Popov, one of two Su-27 pilots who caught the propeller of an American drone after trying to spray the drone with fuel.

“A defense minister who has never served a day in the armed forces (Shoigu) presents a bravery award to a pilot whose previous claim to fame was never missing a meal in his life for shooting down a drone that Russia, as he denies, hit anyway,” said Mercyhurst University professor Fred Hoffman on his Twitter page.

Many netizens also recalled the words of the US National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, who expressed surprise that Russia awarded the pilots with the attribution of what was likely an accidental collision.

After being asked about the subject during a press briefing, Kirby stated that rewarding a pilot for such an “achievement” was ridiculous and that the pilot was, at best, “an idiot”.

“If that means bravery, then they have a different definition of it. It’s absurd, it’s offensive,” the American official said.

How was the awarding of two Russian pilots

We will remind you that on March 17, 3 days after the incident that led to the crash of the MQ-9 Reaper drone in the Black Sea, the Russian press wrote that both pilots of the Russian Su-27 aircraft, participants in the collision, were awarded by the Minister of Defense of Russia, Sergei Shoigu.

Moscow called the launch of the pilots “preventing violation of the borders of the special operations zone” (it is not about the war in Ukraine) by the US drone.

But the Russian Ministry of Defense published a video recording of the awarding ceremony of Serhii Popov and Vasyl Vavilov just a few days ago.

Most of the irony revolved around Popov’s apparent fatness, and many netizens wondered how he was fit to fly military aircraft.

“I’m just saying that plane must have had a pretty spacious cabin!” one netizen joked.

“I’m not surprised that he hit her, he throws the plane off balance with that body,” said another.

Other Twitter commenters noted other similarities.

What the American astronaut said about the accident of the MQ-9 Reaper drone in the Black Sea

US Senator Mark Kelly, a former NASA astronaut who flew with Russian pilots while in the US Navy, said the other day that the incident that led to the crash of an MQ-9 Reaper drone in the Black Sea once again showed the incompetence of Moscow’s military.

“I am not surprised by this. I mean, I flew with Russian pilots, fighter pilots who couldn’t fly in formation. And I watched this video [a incidentului] and it’s pretty obvious what happened,” Kelly said in an interview with CNN.

“He (the Russian pilot) lost sight of her and entered her,” he said.

Kelly, who three years ago became only the fourth former astronaut in history to be elected to the US Congress, compared the incident to “the incompetence we see every day on the battlefield in Ukraine.”

“That’s why the Russians are losing so much now. At this point, the best option for Putin would be to say, ‘Hey, this isn’t working,’ and stop this illegal invasion,” Mark Kelly said.

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