A satellite view shows military aircraft, some sitting destroyed, at the Belaya air base, near Stepnoy, Irkutsk region, Russia, 4 June 2025, after Ukraine launched a drone attack targeting Russian strategic bombers during Russia's ongoing invasion;
Credit: 2025 Planet Labs PBC/Handout via Reuters/File Photo
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian aircraft were damaged but not destroyed in a 1 June 2025 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 ten of them, two US officials told Reuters, a figure that is about half the number estimated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told US President Donald Trump in a telephone conversation on Wednesday 4 June 2025 that Moscow would have to respond to the 1 June attack.
