Russia says it will respond to Ukrainian attacks as and when it sees fit

MOSCOW – Russia says it will respond to Ukraine’s latest attacks as and when its military sees fit, accusing Kyiv of state terrorism and confirming that Russian President Vladimir Putin has told US President Donald Trump that Moscow is

obliged to retaliate

.

Ukraine used drones to strike Russian heavy bomber planes at airbases in Siberia and the far north on June 1.

Russia also accused Ukraine of blowing up rail bridges in the south of the country, killing seven people.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, at his daily briefing with reporters on June 5, highlighted comments made by Mr Putin a day earlier about the railway attacks.

“The President described the Kyiv regime as a terrorist regime because it was the regime’s leadership that consciously gave the order, the command, the order to blow up a passenger train. This is nothing other than terrorism at the state level. This is an important statement by the President,” said Mr Peskov.

Russia has not yet provided evidence that Ukrainian leaders ordered the rail attacks, and Kyiv has not acknowledged responsibility.

The US assesses that Ukraine’s June 1 drone attack hit as many as 20 Russian warplanes, destroying around 10 of them, a figure that is about half the number estimated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Still, the US officials described the attack as highly significant, with one of them cautioning that it could drive Moscow to a far more severe negotiating position in the US-brokered talks to end more than three years of war.

Ukraine says it targeted four airbases across Russia using 117 unmanned aerial vehicles launched from containers close to the targets, in an operation codenamed “Spider’s Web”.

It

released footage on June 4

showing its drones striking Russian strategic bombers and landing on the dome antennas of two A-50 military spy planes, of which there are only a handful in Russia’s fleet.

The two US officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, estimated the Ukrainian strikes destroyed around 10 and hit up to 20 warplanes in total.

That estimate

is far lower

than the one Mr Zelensky offered to reporters in Kyiv earlier on June 4. He said half of the 41 Russian aircraft struck were too damaged to be repaired.

Russian warplanes were damaged but not destroyed in the attack by Ukraine, and

they will be restored

, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

It was not immediately clear how swiftly Russia could repair or replace the damaged aircraft – if at all – given the complexity of the technology, the age of some of the Soviet-era planes, and Western sanctions that restrict Russian imports of sensitive components.

Ukrainian attacks inside Russia and Russian air strikes and advances on the battlefield have escalated the war that

began in February 2022

, damaging prospects for peace talks that the two sides resumed in Turkey in May.

Mr Peskov noted, however, that Mr Putin supported the view of Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a meeting on June 4 that working-level contacts with Ukraine should continue.

He said Mr Putin and Mr Trump did not discuss holding a face-to-face meeting when they spoke on June 4. He said there was a general understanding that such a meeting is necessary, but it has to be properly prepared.

The two did not discuss the possible lifting of sanctions against Russia, Mr Peskov said in reply to a question. REUTERS