A Russian Drone Strike Kills Nine People in Northeastern Ukraine, Officials Associated with “Black Saturday” Peace Talks in Kiev

KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian drone hit a bus evacuating civilians from a front-line area in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region Saturday and killed 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 kilometers (6 miles) from the border with Russia, three of them seriously, according to local Gov. Oleh Hryhorov and Ukraine’s national police. The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify the report and there was no immediate comment from Moscow.

In a Telegram post, the president of Ukraine described the attack as a deliberate killing of civilians and an aid to Russians in not realizing what kind of vehicle they were hitting.

He said that the peace talks on Friday missed an opportunity because Ukraine had proposed a full and unrestricted ceasefire to save lives.

In Bilopillia, a period of mourning was declared through Monday. Local community chief Yurii Zarko calling the day “Black Saturday.” The people who were injured were brought to the hospital in the capital.

The local media outlet said passengers were being evacuated from the bus because of the strike. Authorities are working to identify some of the victims, most of them elderly women.

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

Russian defense ministry hit the Sumy staging area in Kiev during a weekend exercise and warned against negotiations between the Kremlin and the European Union

Russia’s defense ministry claimed that it hit a military staging area in the Sumy region on Saturday morning, but didn’t mention any other attacks there.

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.

Relating to the heads of state meeting, which Russia took under consideration, the Russian delegation head said that both sides had agreed to provide each other with detailed ceasefire proposals.

A temporary ceasefire is one of the conditions for Ukraine supported by its Western allies. The truce remains elusive after the Kremlin pushed back against it.

Zelenskyy said he had discussed the outcome of the Istanbul talks with U.S. 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.”

If the prisoner swap goes ahead and if Russia and Ukraine reach more agreements, the Kremlin is open to the idea of Putin holding talks with Zelenskyy.

Macron in Tirana on Saturday accused Putin of “cynicism” and said that Russia has failed to “respect” ceasefire proposals backed by the U.S. and other Western nations.

“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.

Merz believes that both the Europeans and Americans are determined to work together in order to bring the war to an end.

Trump said he planned to speak with Putin, Zelenskyy and the leaders of NATO countries on Monday about ending the war in Ukraine.

The increased diplomacy came as Russia launched a large-scale invasion ofUkraine in two years, and after direct talks between both Moscow and Kyiv failed to yield a ceasefire.

Russia fired a total of 273 exploding drones and decoys, Ukraine’s air force said Sunday. Of those, 128 lost and 88 were intercepted. The attacks targeted the country’s Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.

Yuriy Ihnat, Head of the Communications Department of the Ukrainian Air Force, told The Associated Press that the barrage was the biggest drone attack since the start of the full-scale invasion.

A woman is dead and three other people are wounded, including a child, due to a drones attack on the region.

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Merz said that he had also agreed with the leaders of France and Britain “that we will speak again with the American president in preparation for this conversation.”

Zelenskyy spoke with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the U.S. ambassador’s residence, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he had spoken both to Zelenskyy and to Rubio on the sidelines of the new pope’s inauguration.