
Ukraine damaged fewer Russian warplanes in drone attack than claimed, US officials say
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 US officials told Reuters, 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.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told US President Donald Trump in a telephone conversation on Wednesday that
Moscow would have to respond to attack , Trump said in a social media post.
Trump added it 'was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace'.
A satellite image shows destroyed TU-95 aircraft in the aftermath of a drone strike at the Belaya airbase, Irkutsk region, Russia. Photo: Maxar Technologies via Reuters
Ukraine says it targeted four airbases across Russia using 117 unmanned aerial vehicles launched from containers close to the targets, in an operation code-named 'Spider's Web'.
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