that damage. reporter: the newly declassified footage appears to directly concept rah dictate russia s claim that the aircraft did not make physical contact. there was no collision. the problem is that we didn t contact to this drone. the russians have been just flat out lying. flat out lying about their account. reporter: the u.s. has not yet determined whether the pilots intended to directly hit the drone, forcing the u.s. military to crash the drone into the black sea some 80 nautical miles from land. we know that the intercept was intentional. we know that the aggressive behavior was intentional. we also know it was very unprofessional and very unsafe. the actual contact of the fixed wing russian fighter with our uav, the physical contact of those two, not sure yet. reporter: but cnn is learning that the russian pilots did not go rogue. u.s. officials familiar with the intelligence say the pilots were ordered to harass the drone by senior officials in russia s
that damage. reporter: the newly declassified footage appears to directly concept rah dictate russia s claim that the aircraft did not make physical contact. there was no collision. the problem is that we didn t contact to this drone. the russians have been just flat out lying. flat out lying about their account. reporter: the u.s. has not yet determined whether the pilots intended to directly hit the drone, forcing the u.s. military to crash the drone into the black sea some 80 nautical miles from land. we know that the intercept was intentional. we know that the aggressive behavior was intentional. we also know it was very unprofessional and very unsafe. the actual contact of the fixed wing russian fighter with our uav, the physical contact of those two, not sure yet. reporter: but cnn is learning that the russian pilots did not go rogue. u.s. officials familiar with the intelligence say the pilots were ordered to harass the drone by senior officials in russia s defense m