Talks begin between Ukraine and U.S. in Saudi Arabia

The flag of Saudi Arabia is seen in the middle between the USA and Ukraine flags prior to talks hosted by the Saudis on March 11, 2025 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

High-stakes talks between Ukraine and the United States have started in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Journalists briefly entered the room to see the two sides as the meeting began at a luxury hotel in the Red Sea port city on Tuesday (March 11, 2025).

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio smiled for the camera, while Ukrainian officials sat without expression at a table across from them.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister was on hand for the talks. American, Saudi and Ukrainian flags stood in the background. Officials answered no shouted questions.

The talks reflect a new diplomatic push after an unprecedented argument erupted during President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s February 28 visit to the White House.

They came hours after Russian air defences shot down 337 Ukrainian drones over 10 Russian regions overnight, killing two people and injuring 18, according to officials.

Ukrainian officials told The Associated Press on Monday (March 10, 2025) that they will propose a ceasefire covering the Black Sea, which would bring safer shipping, as well long-range missile strikes that have hit civilians in Ukraine, and the release of prisoners.

The Kremlin has not publicly offered any concessions. Russia has said it’s ready to cease hostilities on condition that Ukraine drops its bid to join NATO and recognizes regions that Moscow occupies as Russian.

Russian forces have held the battlefield momentum for more than a year and are pushing at selected points along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, especially in the eastern Donetsk region.

Most of the Ukrainian drones fired at Russia overnight — 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.

Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said over 70 drones targeted the Russian capital and were shot down as they were flying toward it — the biggest single attack on Moscow so far in the war.

Other attacked 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.

The governor of the Moscow region surrounding the capital, Andrei Vorobyov, said the attack damaged several residential buildings and a number of cars.

Another person was wounded on a highway in the Lipetsk region, Governor Igor Artamonov said.

Mr. 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-story residential building near the roof, with bits of the building’s lining stripped off.

Flights were 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 wasn’t immediately clear why those regions weren’t mentioned in the Defense Ministry’s statement.

In the Saudi city of Jeddah, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his delegation, including national security adviser Mike Waltz, were preparing to meet Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s team.

Two senior Ukrainian officials said Kyiv is ready to sign an agreement with the United States on access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals — a deal that U.S. President Donald Trump is keen to secure.

On his plane to Jeddah, Mr. Rubio said the U.S. 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,” Mr. 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.”

Mr. 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.