Russia will respond to Sunday's Ukrainian drone attacks on its airfields when and how the military deems appropriate, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
On June 1, Ukraine used drones to carry out attacks against airfields in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions, home to Moscow’s nuclear triad.
Replying to a media query on when Russia could retaliate and how, the Kremlin spokesman said, “In such a way and at such a time as our military deems appropriate.” On Wednesday night, in an unscheduled phone call with his US counterpart Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would have to respond to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's nuclear-capable bomber fleet.
Agreeing with his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s view voiced at the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Putin also described peace talks with Ukraine as "useful." Russian planes that were damaged after Ukraine’s attack on Jun 1 will be repaired, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Wednesday.
"As the defence ministry said, these aircraft were not destroyed but damaged. They will be repaired,” he told the state-run news agency TASS when asked about the attack’s potential impact on the strategic balance.
“So, draw your own conclusions. Apart from that, the aircraft we are talking about are not necessarily covered by any particular agreements. As for the START treaty, we have suspended it, as you know,” Raybkov said.
The Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) is an agreement for nuclear arms reduction between the US and Russia, and establishes a limit on deployed strategic warheads.
Raybkov refuted Kyiv's statements about the destruction of 41 aircraft in the attack’s aftermath.
“There is nothing of the kind,” he stressed, adding that one should rely on “the data released by the Russian defence ministry”.
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