High-stakes talks between senior officials from Ukraine and the United States on how to end Kyiv’s three-year war with Russia have opened in Saudi Arabia.
Arabia Senior officials from Ukraine and the United States opened talks Tuesday on how to end Moscow’s three-year war against Kyiv, hours after Russian air defenses shot down more than 300 Ukrainian drones in the biggest such attack since the Kremlin ordered the full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
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.
Meanwhile, Russia launched 126 Shahed and other drones and a ballistic missile at Ukraine on Tuesday, the Ukrainian air force said, as part of Moscow’s relentless pounding of civilian areas during the war.
In the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, journalists briefly entered a room where a 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. Asked what his expectations for the meeting were, Rubio gave a thumbs up and replied, “Good.”
Across the table, Ukrainian officials, including the country’s top diplomat and defense chief, sat without any facial expressions as the meeting got underway at a luxury hotel. There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian or U.S. officials on the drone attack.
However, Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak, who was also taking part in the talks, told reporters that the most important thing was “how to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.” He said security guarantees were important to prevent Russia from invading again in the future.
In 2014, Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine and threw its weight behind pro-Kremlin militias in eastern Ukraine. They seized large swaths of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and fought against Kyiv’s forces for the following eight years.
