MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian aircraft were damaged but not destroyed in a June 1 attack by Ukraine, and they will be restored, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with the state news agency TASS.
“The equipment in question, as was also stated by representatives of the Ministry of Defence, was not destroyed but damaged. It will be restored,” Ryabkov said.
The United States assesses that Ukraine’s drone attack over the weekend hit as many as 20 Russian warplanes, destroying around 10 of them, two U.S. officials told Reuters, a figure that is about half the number estimated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told U.S. President Donald Trump in a telephone conversation on Wednesday that Moscow would have to respond to the June 1 attack.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
