The Kremlin reacted to Ukrainian UAV attack on Russian airfields.
” The President received information about what happened online. You know that there is an investigation, which was launched by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. There was also a corresponding statement from the Ministry of Defence. I suggest that we wait for the results of the investigation and be guided by the content of the statement of the Russian Defence Ministry,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about Sunday’s drone attacks on Russian airfields and railway bombings in Russia.
Ukraine’s Security Service said earlier that an attack on airfields in several Russian regions on 1 June had hit “34% of strategic cruise missile carriers at Russia’s main airfields” – that is, 43 aircraft. There is no independent confirmation of this data.
Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Centre for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, said in a telegram that at least 13 Russian planes were destroyed and more were damaged (more than 40 in total).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said those involved in the operation had left Russian territory before it began.
Zelenskyy confirmed that the drone attack on Russia’s strategic airfields was a special operation by the SBU. According to the president, the operation was prepared for a year and a half and 117 drones were used in it.
On the evening of 1 June, the Russian Defence Ministry announced the attack by Ukrainian FPV drones on airfields in Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur regions, calling it a “terrorist attack”. According to the Russian ministry, the attack in Murmansk and Irkutsk regions “resulted in the ignition of several units of aircraft”.