Russian drone strike in northeastern Ukraine kills 9 people, officials say

KYIV: A Russian drone hit a bus evacuating civilians from a front-line area in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region Saturday, killing nine people, Ukrainian officials said, hours after Moscow and Kyiv had held their first direct peace talks in years that failed to yield a ceasefire.

Seven people were also injured in the attack in Bilopillia, a town around 10 kilometres from Russia's border, three of them seriously, according to local Gov Oleh Hryhorov and Ukraine's national police. The Associated Press couldn't independently verify the report. There was no comment from Moscow. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as "deliberate killing of civilians," adding in a post on Telegram messaging app that "Russians could scarcely not realize what kind of vehicle they were hitting." He lamented the missed opportunity from Friday's peace talks, saying that "Ukraine has long proposed this - a full and unconditional ceasefire in order to save lives." "Russia only retains the ability to continue killing," Zelenskyy added. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he was "appalled" by the attack. "If Putin is serious about peace, Russia must agree to a full and immediate ceasefire, as Ukraine has done," he wrote on X.

A town in mourning In Bilopillia, a period of mourning was declared through Monday. Local community chief Yurii Zarko called the day "Black Saturday." The injured were taken to a hospital in Sumy, the regional capital. The local media outlet Suspilne said the passengers on the bus were being evacuated from the town when the strike happened. Authorities are working to identify some of the victims, most of them elderly women. Russia's defence ministry claimed its forces hit a military staging area in the Sumy region on Saturday morning, some 50 kilometres southeast of Bilopillia, without mentioning any other attacks there. According to a Washington-based think tank, Ukrainian forces have been inching forward into Russian territory in the Kursk region, just north of Bilopillia. The Institute for the Study of War said last week Ukrainian troops had advanced south of the Russian border village of Tyotkino. Russia said last month that its forces had fully reclaimed the Kursk region, nearly nine months after a lightning incursion by Kyiv captured more than 100 settlements there and promised to hand Ukraine a bargaining chip in possible negotiations with the Kremlin. Ukrainian officials claimed fighting in Kursk is ongoing. Russian shelling, drones and airstrikes killed at least five other civilians on Friday and overnight across Ukraine's Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions, according to local officials there. Russian forces overnight also launched 62 drones, Ukraine's air force reported. It said 36 of the drones were shot down and six more veered off course, likely due to electronic jamming. Impact on peace efforts? Russian and Ukrainian officials met Friday in Istanbul in an attempt to reach a temporary ceasefire, but the talks ended after less than two hours without a breakthrough. It was the first face-to-face dialogue between the two sides since the early weeks of Moscow's February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Hopes for a breakthrough were dashed after Russian President Vladimir Putin spurned Zelenskyy's offer to meet face-to-face in Turkey. Putin's no-show came days after he himself proposed negotiations in Istanbul "without preconditions," as an alternative to the "full and unconditional" ceasefire urged by Ukraine and its Western allies, including the US. While both sides agreed on a large prisoner swap, they remained far apart on key conditions for ending the fighting. One such condition for Ukraine, backed by its Western allies, is a temporary ceasefire as a first step toward a peaceful settlement. The Kremlin has pushed back against such a truce, which remains elusive. Zelenskyy said he had discussed the outcome of the Istanbul talks with US President Donald Trump and the leaders of France, Germany, Britain and Poland. In a post on X from a European leadership meeting in Albania on Friday, he urged "tough sanctions" against Moscow if it rejects "a full and unconditional ceasefire and an end to killings." Kyiv and Moscow agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each, according to the heads of both delegations, in what would be their biggest such swap. Ukraine's intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said on Ukrainian TV on Saturday the exchange could happen as early as next week. The sides also discussed a ceasefire and a meeting between their heads of state, according to the chief Ukrainian delegate, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov. Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to President Vladimir Putin, said both sides also agreed to provide each other with detailed ceasefire proposals, with Ukraine requesting the heads of state meeting, which Russia took under consideration. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, on Saturday held open the possibility of Putin holding talks with Zelenskyy, providing the agreed prisoner swap goes ahead and if Russian and Ukrainian delegations reached unspecified further "agreements." Peskov also told reporters that Moscow will present Ukraine with a list of conditions for a ceasefire but gave no timeframe, or say what needed to happen before Zelenskyy and Putin can meet. European backing In Tirana, Albania, Zelenskyy met with leaders of 47 European countries, including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to discuss security, defence and democratic standards against the backdrop of the war. "Pressure on Russia must be maintained until Russia is ready to end the war," Zelenskyy said on X. Macron in Tirana on Saturday accused Putin of "cynicism" and said that Russia has failed to "respect" ceasefire proposals backed by the US and other Western nations. The French president reiterated that a European "coalition of the willing" is ready to give Ukraine security guarantees and "put pressure on Russia," something he said he expected Trump would support. "Faced with President Putin's cynicism, I believe that ... in fact, I'm sure that President Trump, concerned about the credibility of the United States of America, will react," he said.