Ukraine-US talks on ending war with Russia start in Saudi Arabia as Kyiv
launches huge drone attack
[March 11, 2025]
By MATTHEW LEE
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — High-stakes talks between senior delegations
from Ukraine and the United States on how to end Kyiv’s three-year war
with Moscow opened in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, hours after Russian air
defenses shot down 337 Ukrainian drones over Russia.
Two people were killed and 18 were injured, including three children, in
the massive drone attack that spanned 10 Russian regions, officials
said. No large-scale damage was reported.
In the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, journalists briefly
entered a room where senior Ukrainian delegation met with America’s top
diplomat for talks on ending Europe’s biggest conflict since World War
II.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio smiled for the cameras, while
Ukrainian officials sat without expression at a table across from them
as the meeting got underway at a luxury hotel. There was no immediate
comment from Ukrainian or U.S. officials on the drone attack.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister was on hand for the talks as American,
Saudi and Ukrainian flags stood in the background. Officials did not
answer any of the shouted questions.
The talks offer an opportunity for Kyiv officials to repair Ukraine’s
relationship with Trump’s administration after an unprecedented argument
erupted during President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Feb. 28 visit to the
White House. Critically, Ukraine needs to persuade Washington to end the
subsequent U.S. suspension of military aid and some intelligence
sharing. U.S. officials have said that positive talks in Jeddah could
mean it may be only a short suspension.
Ukrainian officials told The Associated Press on Monday that they will
propose a ceasefire covering the Black Sea, which would bring safer
shipping, as well long-range missile strikes that have hit civilians in
Ukraine, and the release of prisoners.
The two senior officials said Kyiv is also ready to sign an agreement
with the United States on access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals — a
deal that U.S. President Donald Trump is keen to secure.
On his plane to Jeddah, Rubio said the U.S. delegation would not be
proposing any specific measures to secure an end to the three-year
conflict but rather wanted to hear from Ukraine about what they would be
willing to consider.
“I’m not going to set any conditions on what they have to or need to
do,” Rubio told reporters accompanying him. “I think we want to listen
to see how far they’re willing to go and then compare that to what the
Russians want and see how far apart we truly are.”
Rubio said the rare earths and critical minerals deal could be signed
during the meeting but stressed it was not a precondition for the United
States to move ahead with discussions with either Ukraine or the
Russians.
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This photo shows an apartment building where the downed Ukrainian
drone fell at an area in Sapronovo village outside Moscow, Russia,
on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (AP Photo)
He said it may, in fact, make more sense to take some time to
negotiate the precise details of the agreement, which is now a broad
memorandum of understanding that leaves out many specifics.
The Kremlin has not publicly offered any concessions. Russia has
said it’s ready to cease hostilities on condition that Ukraine drops
its bid to join NATO and recognizes regions that Moscow occupies as
Russian. Russia has captured nearly a fifth of Ukraine's territory
since the war began.
Russian forces have held the battlefield momentum for more than a
year, though at a high cost in infantry and armor, and are pushing
at selected points along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line,
especially in the eastern Donetsk region, against Ukraine's
understrength and weary army.
Ukraine has invested heavily in developing its arms industry,
especially high-tech drones that have reached deep into Russia.
Most of the Ukrainian drones fired overnight — 126 of them — were
shot down over the Kursk region across the border from Ukraine,
parts of which Kyiv’s forces control, and 91 were shot down over the
Moscow region, according to a statement by Russia's Defense
Ministry.
Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said over 70 drones targeted the
Russian capital and were shot down as they were flying toward it —
the biggest single attack on Moscow so far in the war.
The governor of the Moscow region surrounding the capital, Andrei
Vorobyov, said the attack damaged several residential buildings and
a number of cars.
Another person was wounded on a highway in the Lipetsk region, Gov.
Igor Artamonov said.
Sobyanin said the roof of a building in Moscow also sustained
damage, which he described as “insignificant.” Footage of the
building, published by RIA Novosti, showed a charred spot on the
facade of a multi-story residential building near the roof, with
bits of the building's lining stripped off.
Flights were temporarily restricted in and out of six airports,
including Domodedovo, Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky just
outside Moscow, and airports in the Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod
regions.
___
Associated Press writer Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed
to this report.
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