The high -risk conversations between high -level delegations of Ukraine and the United States on how to end the kyiv three -year war with Moscow opened in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, hours after Russian aerial defenses caught 337 Ukrainian drones about Russia.
Two people died and 18 were injured, including three children, in the massive attack of drones that covered 10 Russian regions, authorities said. No large -scale damage were reported.
In the Port City of the Red Sea of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, journalists briefly entered a room where the high -ranking Ukrainian delegation met with the main diplomat of the United States for conversations about the end of the largest conflict in Europe since World War II.
The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, smiled at the cameras. When asked what his expectations are for the meeting, Rubio gave a thumb up and replied: “Good.”
The Ukrainian officials, including the main diplomat and the country's head of defense, sat without expression at a table in front of them when the meeting began in a luxury hotel. There were no immediate comments from Ukrainian or American officials about drone attack.
However, Ukrainian presidential assistant Andriy Yermak told journalists that the most important thing was “how to achieve just and lasting peace in Ukraine.” He said that security guarantees were important to prevent Russia from invading again in the future. In 2014, Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine.
The Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia was present for the conversations, since the American, Saudi and Ukrainian flags remained at the bottom. The authorities did not answer any of the questions shouted.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the United States will inform Russia about the results of Jeddah's conversations, which he described as “normal practice.”
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The conversations offer an opportunity for kyiv officials to repair Ukraine's relationship with the Trump administration after an unprecedented argument broke out during the visit of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on February 28 to the White House. Critically, Ukraine needs to persuade Washington to put an end to the subsequent American suspension of military aid and some intelligence exchange. American officials have said that positive conversations in Jeddah could mean that it can only be a short suspension.
Ukrainian officials told The Associated Press on Monday that they will propose a high fire that covers the black sea, which would bring more secure shipping, as well as long -range missile strikes that have affected civilians in Ukraine and the release of prisoners.
The two senior officials said that kyiv is also ready to sign an agreement with the United States on access to rare land minerals of Ukraine, an agreement that the president of the United States, Donald Trump, is anxious to ensure.
In his plane to Jeddah, Rubio said that the United States delegation would not propose any specific measure to ensure the end of the three -year conflict, but wanted to know of Ukraine about what they would be willing to consider.
“I will not establish any condition in what they have or should do,” Rubio told journalists who accompanied him. “I think we want to hear to see how far they are willing to arrive and then compare that with what the Russians want and see how far we are really.”
Rubio said that rare earths and critical mineral agreement could be signed during the meeting, but emphasized that it was not a previous condition for the United States to advance with discussions with Ukraine or Russians.
He said that, in fact, it may 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 aside many details.
The Kremlin has not publicly offered any concession. Russia has said that it is ready to cease hostilities with the condition that Ukraine drops its attempt to join NATO and recognize the regions that Moscow occupies as Russian. Russia has captured almost fifth from the territory of Ukraine since the war began.
The Russian forces have maintained the impulse of the battlefield for more than a year, although at a high cost in infantry and armor, and are pressing at selected points along the front line of 1,000 kilometers (600 miles), especially in the East Region of Donetsk, against the Ukrain and Tired Army of Ukraine.
Ukraine has invested a lot in the development of its weapons industry, especially high -tech drones that have arrived in Russia.
The majority of the Ukrainian drones fired overnight, 126 of them were demolished over the Kursk region through the border from Ukraine, parts of which kyiv forces control, and 91 were demolished over the Moscow region, according to a statement from the Ministry of Defense of Russia.
The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, said that more than 70 drones attacked the Russian capital and were demolished while flying towards him, the greatest individual attack against Moscow so far in the war.
The governor of the Moscow region that surrounds the capital, Andrei Vorobyov, said the attack damaged several residential buildings and several cars.
Another person was injured on a road in the Lapetsk region, said Governor Igor Artamonov.
Sobyanin said that the roof of a building in Moscow also suffered damage, which he described as “insignificant.” The images of the building, published by Ria Novosti, showed a carbonized place on the facade of a several -story residential building near the ceiling, with pieces of the lining of the stripped building.
The flights were temporarily restricted inside and outside six airports, including Domodedovo, Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky on the outskirts of Moscow, and airports in the Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod regions.
Associated Press Hanna Arhirova writer in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
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