Marco Rubio said the American delegation would not be proposing any specific peace deal measures, but wanted to hear what the Ukrainians would consider.
Russia shot down 337 Ukrainian drones over 10 of the federation’s regions overnight, military officials said Tuesday, in what appeared to be the biggest Ukrainian drone attack on Russia since the war broke out.
Two people were killed and 18 injured, including three children, officials said, hours before the start of Ukraine-U.S. talks in Saudi Arabia.
A senior Ukrainian delegation was to meet with America’s top diplomat in the oil-rich Kingdom about ending the three-year war with Russia.
Neither Kyiv nor Washington have yet commented on the attack.
A total of 126 of the drones launched overnight were shot down over the Kursk region across the border from Ukraine, parts of which Kyiv’s forces control, while 91 were shot down over the Moscow region, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said more than 70 drones targeted the capital and were downed as they approached in the biggest single attack on the city since the war began.
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Other regions targeted included Belgorod, Bryansk, and Voronezh on the border with Ukraine and some deeper into the Russian interior, like Kaluga, Lipetsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Oryol, and Ryazan, the statement added.
The governor of Moscow Oblast Andrei Vorobyov said the attack damaged several residential buildings and cars.
Another person was injured on a highway in Lipetsk Oblast, the governor of that region, Igor Artamonov, said.
An apartment damaged by recent Ukraine’s drone attack, according to local authorities, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in Ramenskoye in the Moscow region Mar. 11, 2025. Governor of Moscow region Andrei Vorobyov via Telegram/Handout via Reuters
Sobyanin said the roof of a building in Moscow also sustained damage, which he described as “insignificant.”
Footage published by RIA Novosti showed a charred spot on the facade of a multi-story building near the roof.
Flights were temporarily restricted at six airports, including Domodedovo, Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo, and Zhukovsky just outside Moscow, as well as at hubs in the Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod regions.
Moscow Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the drone attack was a sign that Russia’s troops were winning on the battlefield, state-owned news agency TASS reported.
“This proves the terrorist nature [of Kyiv] and, of course, proves that on the battlefield our people are winning,” Zakharova stated.
TASS also reported Zakharova as saying: “This is a signal to the international community, to the collective West, which is collective only on its surface and utterly fragmented in practice, that now it will deal with the unleashed madness of the monster they raised, fed, equipped, provided with weapons without control and showered with money.”
Last night also saw the Kremlin’s forces attack Ukraine with a ballistic missile and 126 drones, setting a fuel storage facility on fire and injuring at least two people in different parts of the country, Ukrainian officials said.
A resident walks, as smoke rises in the sky at the site of a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine Mar. 11, 2025. Nina Liashonok/Reuters
The Ukrainian air force said it shot down the ballistic Iskander-M missile and 79 of the drones, while another 35 drones did not reach their targets, likely due to electronic warfare countermeasures.
Kyiv’s air force did not say what happened to the other 12 drones.
Meanwhile, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his delegation, including national security adviser Mike Waltz, were preparing to meet Ukraine’s negotiation team.
On his flight to Jeddah, Rubio said the American delegation would not be proposing any specific measures to secure an end to the conflict, but 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.
“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 Kyiv or the Kremlin.
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.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on social media that he met with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday to discuss “bilateral matters and cooperation with other partners.”
Russian forces have held the battlefield momentum for more than a year and are pushing at selected points along the 600-mile front line, especially in the Donetsk region.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
