Russia’s defence ministry says its air defences repelled what appears to be the biggest Ukrainian drone attack on Russia in three years. Meanwhile, US and Ukrainian officials will meet in Saudi Arabia today to discuss the end of the war – but Volodymyr Zelenskyy won’t be there.
Tuesday 11 March 2025 08:13, UK
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Three people are now reported to have died as a result of an overnight Ukrainian drone attack on Russia.
Two employees from the Moscow-based agribusiness Miratorg are among the dead, the firm said.
Russia’s defence ministry said this morning that air defence units had destroyed 337 Ukrainian drones overnight, with 91 of them over the Moscow region.
There has been no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials on the attack.
US officials meeting with their Ukrainian counterparts in Saudi Arabia today will seek to find if Kyiv is “prepared to do difficult things” to end the war with Russia.
That’s according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will be in attendance at today’s talks in Jeddah and was also at talks between American and Russian officials in Riyadh last month.
He told reporters that if Ukraine and America reach an understanding acceptable to Donald Trump, it could accelerate his administration’s push towards peace talks.
“The most important thing that we have to leave here with is a strong sense that Ukraine is prepared to do difficult things, like the Russians are going to have to do difficult things to end this conflict,” he said.
“I’m not going to set any conditions on what they have to or need to do.
“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 spoke with Ukrainian foreign minister Andriy Sybiha on Friday ahead of the talks, which Sybiha described as “constructive”.
A two-sentence readout from the State Department said Rubio “underscored President Trump is determined to end the war as soon as possible and emphasised that all sides must take steps to secure a sustainable peace.”
We now have some images to bring you from Ukraine’s overnight drone attack on Russia.
Russian state media service TASS is reporting two people have died as a result of the attack, described as Ukraine’s biggest in three years of the conflict.
The pictures below show the damage sustained in Moscow and in the surrounding villages of Sapronovo and Domodedovo.
Earlier, we reported on a massive Ukrainian drone attack on Russia, which is already being described as Kyiv’s largest since the war began (see 6.18am post).
Ukraine’s air force has now reported on its own defences, saying it downed 79 of 126 drones launched by Russia overnight.
It added 35 drones did not reach their targets, likely due to the air force’s use of electronic warfare to misdirect them.
The air force did not specify what happened to the remaining 12 drones.
As you’ll no doubt be aware, peace negotiations are taking place between Ukrainian and US officials in Saudi Arabia today.
It comes as intense fighting continues on the battlefield and Kyiv wrangles with a recent cut off from US military aid and intelligence sharing.
“The stakes could not be higher,” says international correspondent Alex Rossi.
Listen to his thoughts on the peace talks here…
Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not take part in today’s peace talks between Ukrainian and US officials in Saudi Arabia, but he has still been in the country this week.
Ukraine’s president met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, yesterday.
Zelenskyy said the pair had a “good” conversation and that he was “grateful” for the crown prince’s “wise perspective on global affairs and support for Ukraine”.
He added it was “especially important to hear words of confidence in Ukraine’s future” before he left the country.
Bin Salman’s government has played a meditating role between Ukraine and Russia.
“Saudi Arabia provides a crucial platform for diplomacy, and we appreciate this,” Zelenskyy said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also met with MBS yesterday ahead of attending peace talks in Jeddah.
Russia’s defence ministry says its air defences shot down 337 Ukrainian drones in what appears to be the biggest Ukrainian drone attack on Russia in three years.
It comes as Ukrainian officials are due to meet with their US counterparts in Saudi Arabia today over talks to end the war.
The most drones – 126 – were shot down over the Russian Kursk region and 91 were shot down over the Moscow region.
Other regions listed included Belgorod, Bryansk and Voronezh on the border with Ukraine and those deeper inside Russia, such as Kaluga, Lipetsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Oryol and Ryazan.
There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials on the attack.
The governor of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov, said one person was killed and three more wounded as a result of the drone attack.
Russia’s aviation watchdog said flights were suspended at all four of Moscow’s airports to ensure air safety following the attack.
Hello and welcome back to our coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Overnight, Russian air defences managed to repel what is being described as Ukraine’s biggest drone attack on Russia in three years.
We’ll bring you the latest on that story shortly, as well as the build-up to today’s peace talks between US and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia.
Before then, here’s a quick rundown of what’s been happening in the last 24 hours:
Thank you for following our updates on the war in Ukraine today.
We’re pausing our live coverage for now.
Before we go, here’s a summary of the key developments over the past 24 hours:
Moldova is facing increasingly blatant Russian attempts aiming at destabilising the country, Emmanuel Macron has said.
The French president has been meeting his Moldovan counterpart, Maia Sandu, whose country shares a border with Ukraine and wants to join the European Union by 2030,
“Moldova, whose airspace is regularly violated by Russian drones and missiles, also has to contend with increasingly uninhibited Russian attempts at destabilisation, targeting your country’s democratic institutions in particular,” he said during a news conference in Paris.
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