Massive attack spread over 10 regions
Moscow: The Russian military said its air defences shot down 337 Ukrainian drones over 10 Russian regions on Monday night in what appears to be the biggest Ukrainian drone attack on Russia in three years, hours before key Ukraine-US talks were to start on Tuesday.
The attack, which killed one person and wounded several, came as 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. There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials on the attack.
The talks in Saudi Arabia reflect a new diplomatic push after an unprecedented argument erupted during President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s February 28 visit to the White House.
Most of the drones – 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 Defence Ministry.
Other regions listed in the statement included Belgorod, Bryansk and Voronezh on the border with Ukraine and those deeper inside Russia such as Kaluga, Lipetsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Oryol and Ryazan.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said over 70 drones targeted the Russian capital and were shot down as they were flying toward it. The governor of the Moscow region surrounding the capital, Andrei Vorobyov, said that one person was killed and nine were wounded in the attack, which also damaged several residential buildings and a number of cars. Another person was wounded on a highway in the Lipetsk region, Governor 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-storey residential building near the roof, with bits of the building’s lining stripped off.
Flights have been 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. Train traffic through the Domodedovo railway station in the Moscow region has also been briefly halted, local officials reported.
Local authorities also reported downing drones in the Tula and Vladimir regions adjacent to the Moscow region. It was not immediately clear why those regions were not mentioned in the Defence Ministry’s statement.
In the Saudi city of Jeddah, there was no immediate US response to the drone barrage as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his delegation, including national security adviser Mike Waltz, were preparing to meet Zelenskyy’s team.
Ukraine is expected to propose a ceasefire covering the Black Sea and long-range missile strikes, as well as the release of prisoners, according to two senior Ukrainian officials.
The officials also said Kyiv is ready to sign an agreement with the United States on access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals – a deal that US President Donald Trump is keen to secure.
On his plane to Jeddah, Rubio said the US 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. 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 is ready to cease hostilities on condition that Ukraine drops its bid to join NATO and recognises 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 armour, and are pushing at selected points along the 1,000-kilometre frontline, especially in the eastern Donetsk region, against Ukraine’s under-strength and weary army.
