The drone strike in the Sumy region amounts to ‘a cynical war crime’, Ukraine’s National Police say.
A Russian drone strike on a civilian bus has killed nine people, says Ukraine, with the attack coming hours after the two countries held their first direct peace talks in years.
Four others were injured in the attack in Ukraine’s northeastern region of Sumy, officials said on Saturday, as Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it had targeted Ukrainian military equipment.
“This is not just another shelling – it is a cynical war crime,” Ukraine’s National Police said in a post on Telegram messaging app, which featured photos of the badly damaged vehicle.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha denounced the attack as an “deliberate and barbaric war crime”, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of continuing “to wage a war against civilians”.
Russia’s TASS news agency, citing a statement from the Defence Ministry, said Russian drones had struck a Ukrainian military equipment staging area in Sumy.
Russia denies targeting civilians since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, although thousands have been killed.
The strike in Sumy came shortly after Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Istanbul on Friday to broker a temporary ceasefire.
The 90-minute talks failed to reach a breakthrough, but ended with both sides agreeing to swap 1,000 prisoners in what would be the largest such exchange since the start of the war in 2022.
Vladimir Medinsky, the lead Russian negotiator, expressed satisfaction with the talks and said Moscow was ready for further negotiations, including on a ceasefire. “We have agreed that all sides will present their views on a possible ceasefire and set them out in detail,” he said after the meeting.
A source in the Ukrainian delegation told Reuters news agency that Russia’s demands were “detached from reality and go far beyond anything that was previously discussed”.
The source told the agency Moscow had issued ultimatums for Ukraine to withdraw from parts of its own territory to get a ceasefire, “and other non-starters”.
Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Kyiv, said Medinsky had sent a clear message during the negotiations that Moscow was ready to continue the war for years – and had no problem in continuing to conduct the war at the same time as it held talks.
“And that is exactly what they have done,” said Basravi.
In his post on social media after the Sumy attack, Ukraine’s Sybiha called for additional pressure on Russia.
“There should be no illusions. Pressure on Moscow must be increased to put an end to Russian terror,” the foreign minister wrote.
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