Russia promises to fix the aircraft that Ukraine damaged in the major drone strike, saying they were "not destroyed."
Russia is vowing to repair the planes that were seen heavily damaged by Ukraine over the weekend in a massive drone attack across multiple airfields.
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On Thursday, Russia promised to fix the airplanes that Ukraine had destroyed in a huge drone attack earlier this week, saying an official said the jets were "not destroyed but damaged."
Following Ukraine's claims that its forces destroyed 40 of Russia's most potent bomber jets and observation planes in "Operation Spider's Web," a series of synchronized drone attacks that penetrated deep into Russian territory on Sunday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov made the remarks.
"As the defense ministry said, these aircraft were not destroyed but damaged. They will be repaired," Ryabkov was quoted telling Russia’s state-run TASS news agency.
However, satellite images of Russian airfields show extensive damage to the planes.
Video released by Ukraine also showed the parked aircraft bursting into fireballs after being struck by the drones.
Two U.S. officials told Reuters that the U.S. believes up to 20 warplanes were hit and 10 destroyed in the operation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally oversaw the strike, which sources told Fox News was more than 18 months in the making. The White House confirmed to Fox News that the Trump administration was not informed about the attack in advance.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian Security Service said Ukraine carried out a massive underwater blast targeting a bridge linking Russia to Crimea.
The same day, Zelenskyy said Russia launched a "savage strike" on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, "directly targeting the city and its ordinary streets with rocket artillery."
President Donald Trump also said Wednesday that he spoke over the phone with President Vladimir Putin, who said Russia would have to respond to the drone strikes.
"We discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. "It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace. President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields."
Fox News Digital's Stephen Sorace, Jasmine Baehr, Alex Miller and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
