At least three people were killed during a large Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s capital overnight, local officials said on Sunday, hours before U.S.-mediated talks to discuss a partial ceasefire began in Saudi Arabia.

Multiple explosions shook the capital, Kyiv, overnight as air defense units fired at incoming drones.

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia had launched nearly 150 drones across the country, and that it had shot down approximately 100. The assertion could not be independently verified.

Sunday morning, local authorities in Kyiv said some drones and debris from others that were shot down had fallen on several buildings in the city, sparking fires. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said three people were killed: a father and his 5-year-old daughter, as well as an 80-year-old woman. At least 10 people were injured.The toll was unusually high for Kyiv, which is one of Ukraine’s best defended cities.

The 80-year-old woman was killed when a drone struck the top floors of her residential building, according to the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general. Hryhoriy Danylenko, 23, who lives across the street, said the strike ignited a fire that quickly spread through the residential building’s top floors.

“People in their everyday clothes were running for shelter,” he said in a phone interview. “There were huge flames.”

Both Russia and Ukraine agreed last week to a ceasefire that would temporarily halt strikes on energy infrastructure. But the ceasefire has not yet taken effect, with details of how it will be implemented still to be ironed out during the talks in Saudi Arabia.

In the meantime, dual air assaults have not abated. On Friday, each side blamed the other for a strike on a Russian gas station near the Ukrainian border.

Also on Sunday, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it had shot down 59 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 29 over the region of Rostov and 20 more over southwestern Astrakhan. In Rostov, one person was killed and a car caught fire due to the Ukrainian drone attack, according to the area’s temporary governor, Yuri Slyusar.

A woman also died in the Russian border village of Novostroyevka-Pervaya in the Belgorod region when a Ukrainian drone hit a car in which she was traveling.

Talks begin

A few hours later, U.S. and Ukrainian representatives began talks in Saudi Arabia that focused on halting attacks on energy facilities, such as power plants and substations. Ensuring shipping safety in the Black Sea was also on the agenda, according to the White House.

Rustem Umerov, the Ukrainian defense minister leading his country’s delegation, said the talks had begun around 5:30 p.m. Kyiv time and ended some five hours later. “The discussion was productive and focused — we addressed key points including energy,” he wrote on social media afterward, without providing further details.

Russia will hold separate talks with the United States on Monday, with U.S. representatives acting as mediators between the two sides. A Ukrainian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said the Ukrainian delegation might hold additional discussions with U.S. officials on Monday, depending on progress.

Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said he expected “some real progress” at the talks in Saudi Arabia.

Asked about concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be looking beyond Ukraine and could press further into Europe, even if Russia is awarded territory within Ukraine now, Witkoff said he has been asked his opinion on what Putin’s motives are on a large scale.

“I simply have said that I just don’t see that he wants to take all of Europe. This is a much different situation than it was in World War II. In World War II there was no NATO. You have countries that are armed there. I take him at his word in this sense. And I think the Europeans are beginning to come to that belief, too. But it sort of doesn’t matter. That’s an academic issue. … The agenda is stop the killing, stop the carnage, let’s end this thing.”

This report includes information from the Associated Press.