Ukraine-Russia war live: US warns ‘no military solution’ to war as Zelensky arrives for Saudi peace talks – UK Times

There is “no military solution” to the conflict in Ukraine, US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said ahead of first official meeting with Ukraine on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia after the disastrous encounter between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump in the White House on 28 February.

Ukraine’s delegation, led by chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, will meet Mr Rubio, and other senior White House officials in the Saudi city of Jeddah.

Ukraine’s position in the talks would be “fully constructive”, said Mr Zelensky.

On his way to Jeddah, Mr Rubio told reporters on the plane: “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 or at least pause it in some way, shape or form.

“I think both sides need to come to an understanding that there’s no military solution to this situation.

“The Russians can’t conquer all of Ukraine, and obviously it’ll be very difficult for Ukraine in any reasonable time period to sort of force the Russians back all the way to where they were in 2014.”

Russian air defence units destroyed at least 11 Ukrainian drones flying towards Moscow, the mayor of the Russian capital said, while aviation authorities announced suspending flights at two of the airports serving the city.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the drones were downed over the Ramenskoye and Domodedovo districts of the Moscow region. Both districts lie about 40km to 50 km south and southeast of the Kremlin.

“According to preliminary information, there is no damage or injuries,” Mr Sobyanin said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia’s aviation watchdog said that flights were suspended at the Zhukovo and Domodedovo airports to ensure air safety following the reports of the attacks.

The attacks could not be independently verified. Ukraine has not issued any comments.

Elon Musk has claimed that a cyber attack targeting his social media platform X originated from “IP addresses in the Ukraine area,” as his business empire faces mounting challenges following his entry into the Trump administration.

Speaking to Fox Business on Monday, Mr Musk did not provide evidence for his assertion nor explicitly suggest that state actors were involved.

Earlier in the day, he had posted on X that “either a large, co-ordinated group and/or a country” was responsible for the disruption, which caused widespread outages across the United States and other regions.

Once a key supporter of Ukraine’s war effort through the deployment of Starlink services, Mr Musk has grown increasingly critical of US military aid to Kyiv, referring to the conflict as a “never-ending graft meat grinder”.

Secretary of state Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz will evaluate Ukraine’s position on potential peace negotiations during their visit to Saudi Arabia, Mr Rubio told reporters aboard his plane before arrival.

Their assessment could influence the US approach to brokering peace if an understanding is reached that aligns with president Donald Trump’s stance.

“What we want to know is, are they interested in entering some sort of peace conversation and general outlines of the kinds of things they could consider, recognising that it has been a costly and bloody war for the Ukrainians. They have suffered greatly and their people have suffered greatly,” Mr Rubio said.

“And it’s hard in the aftermath of something like that to even talk about concessions, but that’s the only way this is going to end and prevent more suffering.”

Mr Rubio emphasised that he would not impose any conditions but was focused on understanding Ukraine’s position in comparison to Russia’s demands.

“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,” he said.

A Ukrainian delegation set to meet with America’s top diplomat in Saudi Arabia about ending the 3-year war with Russia will propose a ceasefire covering the Black Sea and long-range missile strikes, as well as the release of prisoners, two senior Ukrainian officials said on Monday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly about Tuesday’s meeting, also told Associated Press that the Ukrainian delegation is ready during the talks 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.

The officials discussed the confidence-building measures, with no further details, ahead of the Ukrainian negotiating team’s meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jeddah.

Kyiv is trying to repair the damage done when Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky’s 28 February visit to Washington descended into an Oval Office argument with Mr Trump and vice president JD Vance.

It’s not just the long-term fate of the war in Ukraine that could be impacted by the upcoming talks in Saudi Arabia.

President Zelensky’s showing could also impact recently paused U.S. aid flows to Ukraine, according to American secretary of state Marco Rubio.

“My hope is we’ll have a really good meeting tomorrow and be in a different place,” he told reporters about the aid as he headed to Jeddah.

Here’s what you need to know about the crucial change in U.S. aid policy looming over the talks.

U.S. officials have revealed one of the major proposals they’d like to see Ukraine offer to end the war with Russia: ceding land.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters as he headed to Saudi Arabia that Ukraine ceding territory would be among the hard concessions he expects both Ukraine and Russia to make to achieve peace.

“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 or at least pause it in some way, shape or form,” he told reporters.

“I think both sides need to come to an understanding that there’s no military solution to this situation,” he added. “The Russians can’t conquer all of Ukraine, and obviously it’ll be very difficult for Ukraine in any reasonable time period to sort of force the Russians back all the way to where they were in 2014.”

The Trump administration looks set to continue its strategy of more direct engagement with Vladimir Putin and Russia alongside multi-party attempts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is planning a trip with Russia later this week to meet with Putin, Axios reports.

The content of that meeting remains to be determined, and will surely be influenced by the results of the ongoing Saudi talks around the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had warm words for de facto Saudi Arabian leader Mohammed bin Salman on Monday, after the pair met ahead of wider talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

For Zelensky, the talks are a crucial moment to shore up his slipping position, as the U.S. continues to drift towards Russia after sending billions in aid to the Ukrainian side.

Here’s what the Ukrainian leader wrote, courtesy of a statement on X.

I had a good meeting with Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman. I am grateful for his wise perspective on global affairs and support for Ukraine. It was especially important to hear words of confidence in Ukraine’s future. We discussed all key issues on the agenda—both bilateral matters and cooperation with other partners. I acknowledged the Crown Prince’s efforts in bringing true peace closer. Saudi Arabia provides a crucial platform for diplomacy, and we appreciate this. The Ukrainian delegation remains in Jeddah to work with the U.S. team on Tuesday, March 11, and we hope for practical outcomes. Ukraine’s position in these talks will be fully constructive. With the Crown Prince, we had a detailed discussion on the steps and conditions needed to end the war and secure a reliable and lasting peace. I specifically emphasized the issue of the release of prisoners and the return of our children, which could become a key step in building trust in diplomatic efforts. A significant part of the discussion was dedicated to the formats of security guarantees. We appreciate Saudi Arabia’s readiness to expand economic cooperation and invest in Ukraine. We discussed key sectors for investment, starting with security, energy, and infrastructure. We share a common vision for economic development and interaction, particularly regarding Ukraine’s reconstruction. The Crown Prince also shared Saudi Arabia’s ambitious economic strategy, and we wish our partners success. We are ready to collaborate and are confident that stronger ties between our nations and regions will benefit both our peoples and the world.

Elon Musk suggested on Monday that an alleged cyberattack which caused outages across his social network X had ties to Ukraine.

“We’re not sure exactly what happened, but there was a massive cyberattack to try to bring down the X system with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area,” Musk said in an interview with Fox News.

Here’s more on the cyberattack, which brought caused tens of thousands of reported outages.