Russian attack kills nine people in Ukraine hours after countries hold first peace talks
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for stronger sanctions on Saturday after two countries killed nine bus passengers in northeastern Ukraine after the two countries held their first peace talks in two years.
A meeting held by Russian and Ukrainian officials in Türkiye on Friday failed to make a temporary ceasefire. This is the first direct dialogue between the two sides since the early month of the war initiated by Russia in February 2022.
Commenting on the drone strike in the Sumy area, Zelenskyy said on X: “All the dead are civilians. It's impossible for the Russians to not understand which vehicle they are aiming for. This is the person who intentionally killed civilians.”
Ukrainian police posted a photo of a dark blue passenger van that was almost destroyed, the roof was torn and the windows blew out.
“The pressure must be put on Russia to stop the killing. Without tougher sanctions, without greater pressure, Russia will not seek true diplomacy.”
He said Russia had sent a delegation of “a weak, unprepared” to Istanbul without meaningful mandates and needed real steps to end the war.
“We expect strong sanctions against Russia from the United States, Europe and all partners. Diplomacy must start working,” Zelenskyy said.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been pushing for peace talks between Moscow and Kiev, said before the two countries' negotiators met in Istanbul that he would “nothing could happen” until he met directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
British Foreign Secretary points to Russia's “confusion”
British Foreign Minister David Lammy accused Moscow of being in trouble less than two hours after talks in Istanbul in his speech at Reuters in Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Saturday.
“Again, we see once again confusion on the Russian side and unwilling to take the lasting peace that Ukraine needs seriously,” Rami said. “Russia is not serious again.”
“When is it enough to say to Putin?”
French President Emmanuel Macron also said the talks held in Istanbul were fruitless.
Ukraine in Istanbul – Russia's peace talks ended less than two hours later, with no ceasefire agreement, although both sides did agree to prisoner exchanges. Ukraine and its allies accuse Russia of making unrealistic demands.
“Today, we have nothing.
Zelenskyy challenged Putin to meet him in person earlier this week, and the Russian leader was ignored. However, this possibility was discussed in Friday's talks, according to the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday that Russia believes it is a possible meeting, but only the work between the two sides is “to achieve certain results in the form of an agreement”.
Peskov added: “At the same time, when signing documents that the delegation wants to reach consensus, the main and basic thing for us is that they will sign them exactly from the Ukrainian side.”
Peskov did not elaborate on this episode. Putin had previously questioned the legitimacy of Zelenskyy as president because his term of election expired last year.
Ukraine defends itself against Russia under martial law, and has not set a date for new elections
