HIGH-stakes talks between senior delegations from Ukraine and the United States on how to end the three-year war with Moscow opened in Saudi Arabia today.

The talks in the Red Sea port of Jeddah began hours after Russian air defences shot down 337 Ukrainian drones over Russia.

Two people were killed and 18 were injured, including three children, in the massive drone attack that spanned 10 Russian regions, officials said. No major damage was reported.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Rustem Umerov, the Minister of Defence, met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his team for talks on ending Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.

Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud was on hand for the talks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not present.

There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian or US officials on the drone barrage.

Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak told reporters that the most important thing about the talks was that they contribute towards achieving “a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”

Mr Yermak added that security guarantees from the US were important to prevent Russia from invading again in the future. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the US will inform Russia about the results of the Jeddah talks.

Meanwhile, most of the 126 Ukrainian drones fired overnight at Russia were shot down over the Kursk region while 91 were shot down over the Moscow region, according to a statement by Russia’s Defence Ministry.

Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that more than 70 drones targeted the Russian capital and were shot down — the biggest single attack on Moscow so far in the war.

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.