By Faith Barbara N Ruhinda Updated at 1349 EAT on Saturday 17 May 2025

A Russian drone strike on passenger bus in northeastern Ukrsin’s sumy has resulted in atleast nine fatalities and seven injuries, according to Ukrainian officials.The attack on saturday, mere hours after the first direct peace talks between Russia and Ukrain in three years were held in Turkey.

While the two sides discussed a possible meeting between the two countries’ leaders, a ceasefire and agreed a prisoner swap, there was no major breakthrough and since then Russia’s aerial assault continued.

The drone attack took place Saturday morning in the city of Bilopillia in the Sumy region, local authorities said, with Oleh Hrihorov head of Sumy’s military administration saying that seven people were injured, three of whom were in critical condition.

This is not just another shelling  it is a cynical war crime,” Ukraine’s National Police also said on Telegram. Police and local authorities said Russia had struck a civilian target.

Moscow has not officially responded to Ukraine’s accusation that it deliberatly targeted a civilian bus. However, Russia’s state new agency TASS, citing a statement from the Russian forces carried out a drone on what they as Ukrainian “equipment staging site” the same area where the bus was hit.

Russia and Ukraine have both accused each other of targeting civilians, which each denies.

An image shared by Ukraine’s national police showed a heavily damaged van bearing massive holes in the right and top side of the passenger seats. Its windows, as well as the windshield, were shattered.

Overall in Ukraine, Russian attacks killed at least 13 people and injured over 38 in the past 24 hours, which includes the attack in Sumy, Ukrainian authorities say. Two were killed in Donetsk region, and one person was killed in both Kharkiv and Kherson regions.

Friday’s talks marked the first face-to-face meeting between the two sides since the early weeks of the war.

But the meeting which took place in Istanbul chaired by Turkey  was not attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had first proposed the talks but instead sent a junior delegation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also stayed away, having said he would not meet any other Russian official but Putin.

On Saturday, the Kremlin said that a meeting between Zelensky and Putin could happen, but only if certain conditions are met.

Such a meeting is possible as a result of the work of the delegations of both sides in reaching certain agreements,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

Peskov also spoke about preparing a list of conditions for a ceasefire agreement, that would then be exchanged with the Ukrainian side.

Kyiv and its allies have repeatedly called for an unconditional truce and accuse Russia of deliberately holding up peace efforts.

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