Russia shoots down 337 Ukrainian drones in massive attack as US officials

Russian air defenses shot down 337 Ukrainian drones over 10 Russian regions overnight, military officials said Tuesday, in what appeared to be the biggest Ukrainian drone attack on Russia in the three-year war.

The attack came hours before the start of key Ukraine-U.S. talks in Saudi Arabia on how to stop Europe's biggest conflict since World War II. Two people were killed and 18 were injured, including three children, officials said.

A senior Ukrainian delegation, meanwhile, was to meet with America’s top diplomat in Saudi Arabia about ending the three-year war with Russia.

There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian or U.S. officials on the attack.

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

Ukrainian officials told sources on Monday 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 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 Defense 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, Gov. 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-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.