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Ukraine says ‘next step’ would be Zelensky and Putin’s meeting after first talks since 2022 end
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Nine people were killed when a Russian drone struck a passenger bus in north-eastern Ukraine, just hours after Moscow and Kyiv held their first face-to-face peace talks since the war began.
Medics, emergency services, and police rushed to the scene of the strike in Bilopillia town in Ukraine’s Sumy region on Saturday morning, according to the head of the regional military administration.
The deadly attack came just hours after Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each, following brief peace talks in Turkey that lasted less than two hours.
Kyiv was far less positive about the talks, accusing Moscow of making “unacceptable demands” which were “detached from reality”.
Volodymyr Zelensky said he has spoken to Donald Trump over the phone after the talks as he began rallying its allies for tougher action on Russia.
Sir Keir Starmer and Mr Zelensky agreed the Russian position in peace talks was “unacceptable”, the British prime minister said, adding that they had spoken with Mr Trump.
Just as the talks were scheduled to begin, Kyiv accused Russia of “undermining” peace talks in Istanbul by demanding last-minute that Turkish and US representatives not be involved.
The Ukrainian delegation said the next step should be a direct meeting between Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky.
At the meeting convened by Turkey, the negotiating teams sat opposite one another at a U-shaped table, with the Russians dressed in suits while half of the Ukrainians wore military fatigues.
The atmosphere was calm, a Turkish official said. No concrete timetable or location was agreed for the next talks, the official said, with both sides needing to debrief their leaders first.
The Ukrainians spoke in their own language through an interpreter, a Ukrainian source said, although Russian is widely spoken in Ukraine.
A Ukrainian and a European source said Russia rejected a Ukrainian request for US representatives to be in the room.
Two sources familiar with the talks said Vladimir Medinsky, the head of Russia’s peace delegation said Russia was ready to keep fighting for as long as necessary, drawing a parallel with the wars of Tsar Peter the Great against Sweden, which lasted 21 years in the early 1700s.
“We do not want war, but we are ready to fight for a year, two, three as long as you want,” one of the sources quoted him as saying.
Here is the recap of events since Friday if you are just joining us.
• Russia and Ukraine held their first direct peace talks since 2022 in Istanbul, at the Dolmabahce Palace. The meeting lasted just under two hours; neither Vladimir Putin nor Volodymyr Zelensky attended
• No major breakthrough was achieved, with expectations already low ahead of the talks. The only tangible outcome was an agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each – the largest swap of the war
• Ukraine pushed for a 30-day ceasefire, but Moscow rejected the proposal and stuck to its maximalist demands
• Ukraine said Russia signalled willingness to continue talks and acknowledged Ukraine’s request for a Zelensky and Putin meeting
• Zelenskyy reiterated his call for an immediate, full, and honest ceasefire to stop the bloodshed. He also urged further sanctions on Moscow if it refuses to agree to a ceasefire
• Hours after the talks in Turkey, a Russian drone strike killed nine people in Ukraine’s Sumy after a bus came under attack. Russia said it was targeting targeted a Ukrainian military equipment staging area in the Sumy region
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each in their first talks for more than three years. But the two sides fell short of negotiating a ceasefire as Kyiv said Moscow had presented conditions that were “non-starters”.
Under pressure from US president Donald Trump to end the conflict, delegates from the warring countries met for the first time since March 2022, the month after Russia invaded its neighbour.
The negotiations, held in Istanbul’s Dolmabahce Palace and mediated by a Turkish team, took place after a turbulent two days cast doubt over whether the meeting would take place at all.
The talks lasted under two hours and there was no immediate announcement on whether or when the sides might meet again, although Russia expressed satisfaction with the meeting and said it was ready to continue contacts.
Ukraine said its next goal is for Vladimir Putin to meet directly with Volodymyr Zelensky; Russia said it had “taken note” of the request.
Ukraine’s National Police called the bus strike in Sumy a “cynical war crime” after nine people were killed in a drone strike on a bus.
“This is not just another shelling, it is a cynical war crime,” Ukraine’s National Police said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
Ihor Tkachenko, head of Sumy’s military administration, said on Telegram that a rescue operation was under way.
A Russian drone hit a bus, killing nine people and injuring four more in the region of Sumy, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday, in an attack that took place hours after Moscow and Kyiv held their first direct peace talks in years.
Ukraine’s police posted photos of a dark blue passenger van nearly destroyed, with the roof torn off and the windows blown out.
Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed it had targeted a Ukrainian military equipment staging area in the Sumy region, according to state news agency Tass.
It came shortly after Ukrainian officials said nine people were killed after a drone strike hit a bus, killing nine passengers.
The attack happened after a meeting of Russian and Ukrainian officials in Turkey on Friday failed to broker a temporary ceasefire. It was the first direct dialogue between the two sides since the early months of the war that Russia launched in February 2022.
The pictures have emerged of the passenger bus that was hit by a drone strike in Ukraine’s Sumy, killing nine people.
The blue passenger bus was badly damaged, with its roof partially blown off and the right side completely destroyed.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov has said Kyiv believes the next step after Friday’s talks about the war with a Russian delegation should be a meeting of the nation’s two leaders.
Umerov told reporters that the first priority in the talks on Friday in Istanbul was to secure the release of prisoners of war, and the second, to secure a ceasefire, adding that the next step should be leader-level talks.
Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, Serhiy Kyslytsia, said he hoped the nations’ two leaders would meet “sooner rather than later”.
The first direct Russia-Ukraine dialogue in three years has produced good results, Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy, said late on Friday.
“1. Largest POW exchange 2. Ceasefire options that may work 3. Understanding of positions and continued dialogue,” Dmitriev, the chief of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, said on social media platform X.
At least eight people have been killed and five injured after a Russian attack hit a bus with civilians in Ukraine’s Sumy region, the head of the military administration of the region in Ukraine’s northeast said on Saturday.
“Passengers have been injured,” Ihor Tkachenko, head of Sumy’s military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.
“Medics and rescuers have been urgently sent to the scene'”.
The attack came hours after Russia and Ukraine held their first direct peace talks in three years.
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