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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.
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.
The European Union is working on a new package of sanctions to increase pressure on Russian president Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine, EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen said as leaders from across Europe met in Albania.
The European Political Community Summit, which includes non-EU countries, convened in the Albanian capital Tirana as Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Istanbul for their first direct peace talks in more than three year.
“He does not want peace, so we have to increase the pressure, and this is why we are working on a new package of sanctions,” Ms von der Leyen said, referring to Putin.
“This package will include for example sanctions on Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. It will include working on listing more vessels of the Russian shadow fleet and also lowering the oil price cap, and will include more sanctions on the financial sector in Russia.”
Nato secretary general Mark Rutte had said earlier in the day that Putin had “made a mistake by sending a low-level delegation” to Istanbul.
The British prime minister Keir Starmer said he and European allies spoke to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump on Friday to begin “closely aligning” a response to Russia’s “unacceptable” position in Ukraine peace talks.
After the phone call, he told reporters in Tirana, Albania: “We just had a meeting with President Zelensky and then a phone call with President Trump to discuss the developments in the negotiations today.
“And the Russian position is clearly unacceptable, and not for the first time.
“So as a result of that meeting with President Zelensky and that call with President Trump we are now closely aligning our responses and will continue to do so.”
Sir Keir said the prisoner swap was “obviously a good thing” but that “we need to be really clear in putting the pressure on for a ceasefire”.
“And I’m very keen to continue to put that pressure on, because we need to make sure that Putin comes to the table, but his actions this week still show me that he’s not serious yet about peace.”
Ukraine rallied support from its Western allies on Friday after Kyiv and Moscow failed to agree to a ceasefire at their first direct talks in more than three years, with Russia presenting conditions that a Ukrainian source described as “non-starters”.
As soon as the talks ended, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky held a phone call with Donald Trump and the leaders of France, Germany and Poland, his spokesperson said.
Mr Zelensky said robust sanctions should follow if Russia rejects a ceasefire.
Russia’s demands were “detached from reality and go far beyond anything that was previously discussed,” a source in the Ukrainian delegation told Reuters.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Moscow had issued ultimatums for Ukraine to withdraw from parts of its own territory in order to obtain a ceasefire “and other non-starters and non-constructive conditions”.
Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X that he and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas agreed that “pressure on Moscow must be strengthened to achieve a full and durable ceasefire”.
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