Ukraine: Russian bombing kills nine civilians after unsuccessful peace talks

Despite pressure from kyiv's allies by threatening Moscow with new sanctions, hostilities continue on the ground. "An enemy drone struck a bus near Bilopillia, killing nine people and wounding four others," the military administration of the border region of Sumy said on Telegram, posting photos of a minibus wreck on a road.

The vehicle was "heading towards Sumy," said the same source, who had earlier spoken of "a cynical attack by the Russians on a bus carrying civilians." The Sumy region, which borders Russia, has been facing a resurgence of Russian bombardments since Ukrainian forces were driven out in March from the Russian region of Kursk, which faces it and of which they had occupied a small part since the summer of 2024. The regional authorities of Donetsk (east) and Kherson (southeast) reported Russian strikes that left two dead and one dead respectively on Friday.

Diplomatic impasse and renewed violence

Meeting Friday in Istanbul for their first peace talks since spring 2022, Russians and Ukrainians agreed on a significant prisoner exchange, "at a rate of 1,000 for 1,000," according to Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky. But the meeting ended without an announcement of a ceasefire, despite kyiv and its allies' stated "priority." Both sides must now "detail" their vision for such a truce, Vladimir Medinsky said in a brief address to the press.

The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Rustem Umerov, and Vladimir Medinsky specified that the Ukrainian side had also discussed a possible meeting between Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin, which would be a first since the start of the Russian invasion. The Russian negotiator, however, simply indicated that Moscow had "taken note of this request." Vladimir Putin de facto refused this week to meet his Ukrainian counterpart in Türkiye, who had offered to do so.

A Ukrainian diplomatic source claimed that Russian negotiators had "put forward unacceptable demands that go beyond what was discussed before the meeting," including the withdrawal of Kyiv's forces from "large parts of" Ukrainian territory before any ceasefire could be established. Before the meeting, Vladimir Medinsky, a nationalist historian and Kremlin adviser, had reiterated that Moscow wanted to discuss the "root causes" of the conflict and viewed these talks as "a continuation" of the 2022 talks, during which Moscow had stuck to maximalist positions.