Hours after Russia’s largest missile strike on Ukraine, Zelenskyy met with Vance in Rome
A Russian Drone Strike Kills Nine People, Officials – After a Kiev-Kirchuk Peace-Convergence Breaks?
KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian drone hit a bus evacuating civilians from a front-line area in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region Saturday and killed nine people, Ukrainian officials said, hours after Moscow and Kyiv had held their first direct peace talks in years that failed to yield a ceasefire.
Seven people were also injured in the attack in Bilopillia, a town around 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border with Russia, three of them seriously, according to local Gov. Oleh Hryhorov and Ukraine’s national police. The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify the report and there was no immediate comment from Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as “deliberate killing of civilians” and aid in a post on Telegram messaging app that “Russians could scarcely not realize what kind of vehicle they were hitting.”
He lamented the missed opportunity from the peace talks on Friday, saying that “Ukraine has long proposed this — a full and unconditional ceasefire in order to save lives.”
A period of mourning was held in Bilopillia. “Black Saturday” is the day called by local community chief Yurii Zarko. The injured were taken to the regional hospital in Sumy.
The local media said the passengers were being evacuated from the town when the strike happened. Some of the elderly women who were murdered are being identified by authorities.
Source: A Russian drone strike in northeastern Ukraine kills 9 people, officials say
Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian troops in the Sumy region: President Putin meets with US and EU officials in a “nearly-invisibly” peace process
Russia’s defense ministry claimed their forces hit a military staging area in the Sumy region on Saturday morning without mentioning any other attacks there.
According to a Washington-based think tank, Ukrainian forces have been inching forward into Russian territory in the Kursk region, just north of Bilopillia. According to the report last week by the Institute for the Study of War, Kyiv’s troops had advanced south of the Russian border village of Tyotkino.
Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to President Vladimir Putin, said that both sides had agreed to give each other detailed ceasefire proposals and thatUkraine requested a heads of state meeting.
One such condition for Ukraine, backed by its Western allies, is a temporary ceasefire as a first step toward a peaceful settlement. The truce is elusive because the Kremlin pushed back against it.
In Rome on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with top US and European officials to discuss his country’s upcoming presidential election.
Putin can hold talks with Zelenskyy if the prisoner swap is completed and if other agreements are reached, according to the spokesman for the Kremlin.
According to Macron, Putin failed to respect ceasefire proposals from the U.S. and other Western nations, and that he is “cynicism”.
I believe that President Trump will respond to President Putin’s cynicism about the credibility of the U.S.
“My firm impression is that both the Europeans and the Americans are determined to work together, but now also in a goal-oriented manner, to ensure that this terrible war ends soon,” Merz told reporters in Rome.
Trump said he plans to speak by phone Monday with Putin, and will then speak to Zelenskyy and leaders of various NATO countries, about ending the war in Ukraine.
The intensified diplomacy came as Russia launched its largest drone barrage against Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, after the first direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv in years failed to yield a ceasefire.
The air force of the country said Russia fired almost 300 drones and decoys. Of those, 88 were intercepted and a further 128 lost, likely having been electronically jammed. The attacks targeted the country’s Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.
The head of the Ukrainian Air Force told The AP it was the largest attack of drones since the beginning of the invasion.
Kyiv regional Gov. Mykola Kalashnyk said a a 28-year-old woman was killed in a drone attack on the region and three other people, including a 4-year-old child, were wounded.
The German chancellor is to speak with Zelenskyy and the new pope in the pre-election phase of the Second World War
“I have also agreed with the leaders of Britain and France that we will speak again with the American president while preparing for this conversation,” Merz said.
The German chancellor spoke with both Zelenskyy and the new pope on the sidelines of the election.
