Cnn
–
A Russian drone attack on a bus in northeast Ukraine killed at least nine people and injured seven others, Ukrainian officials announced on Saturday, just hours after the two countries met for the first direct peace talks in three years.
While the two parties discussed a possible meeting between the leaders of the two countries, a cease-fire and agreed to an exchange of prisoners, there has been no major breakthrough and since then, the air aggression of Russia has continued.
Drone’s attack took place on Saturday morning in the city of Bilopillia in the Sumy region, local authorities said, with Oleh Hrihorov – Head of the Sumy military administration – saying that seven people had been injured, three of whom were in critical condition.
“This is not only another bombing – it is a cynical war crime,” also said the Ukraine national police on Telegram. Police and local authorities said Russia had achieved a civilian objective.
Moscow has not yet responded to Ukraine’s claims that he hit a civilian bus.
However, the state news agency of Russia Tass reported almost the same time, citing a declaration from the Ministry of Defense, that the Russian forces struck a site for staging Ukrainian equipment in the Sumy region with drones.
Russia and Ukraine have both accused of targeting civilians, which everyone denies.
An image shared by the National Police of Ukraine has shown a strongly damaged van bearing massive holes in the right side and at the top of the passenger seats. Its windows, as well as the windshield, were broken.
Overall, in Ukraine, Russian attacks have killed at least 13 people and injured more than 38 years in the past 24 hours, which includes Sumy’s attack, according to Ukrainian authorities. Two were killed in the Donetsk region and a person was killed in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions.
Friday’s talks marked the first face -to -face meeting between the two parties in the first weeks of the war.
But the meeting – which took place in Istanbul chaired by Turkey – was not assisted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had first proposed the talks but rather sent a junior delegation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also stayed away, after saying that he would not meet any other Russian officials but Putin.
During the talks, Russia demanded that Ukraine must sell land under the control of kyiv, a familiar source with the negotiations on Friday told CNN, a position that Ukraine has long rejected. The leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Poland called Russian requests in “unacceptable” talks.
On Saturday, the Kremlin said that a meeting between Zelensky and Putin could occur, but only if certain conditions were met.
“Such a meeting is possible due to the work of the delegations of both parties to achieve certain agreements,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
Peskov also talked about the preparation of a list of “conditions” for a cease-fire agreement, which would then be exchanged with the Ukrainian part. Kyiv and his allies have repeatedly called for an unconditional truce and to accuse Russia to deliberately retain peace efforts.
