A Russian unmanned aircraft strike hit a passenger bus in the Northeast of Ukraine on Saturday, killing nine people and wounding four others, Ukrainian officials allege.
The attack occurred only a few hours after Russian and Ukrainian officials made their first direct peace conversations in years, although the two parties did not reach a high fire agreement for the conflict that began with an invasion of February 2022 by Moscow.
The National Police of Ukraine published photos showed by the sequelae of Saturday strike in the city of Bilopillia in the Sumy region. The city is about six miles from the front line and the border with Russia.
“This is another war crime in Russia: a deliberate strike on civil transport that did not represent a threat,” said the regional administration of Sumy in Telegram.
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Rescuers recover the bodies of the passengers after a Russian drone hit a passenger bus in the town of Bilopilly in the Sumy region, Ukraine, on Saturday, May 17, 2025. (Ukrainian emergency service through AP)
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, described the attack as “deliberate civilians.”
A period of mourning in Bilopillia has been declared from Saturday to Monday. The head of the local community, Yurii Zarko, called “Black Saturday” attack.
Passengers on the bus were being evacuated from Bilopillia when the drone hit, according to the local media suspilne. The authorities were working to identify some of the victims, most of whom were older women.
The injured victims were transported to a hospital in Sumy, the regional capital. Three people were included in serious condition.
On Saturday morning, the Russian Ministry of Defense said their forces hit a military staging area in the Sumy region, about 31 miles southeast of Bilopillia, but did not mention any other attacks in the area.
It was not clear how the strike would affect peace efforts.
On Friday, Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Türkiye in an attempt to reach a high temporal fire, but the conversations ended in less than two hours without a truce. The negotiations were the first face to face between the two countries since the first weeks of the war.
The Russian and Ukrainian delegations attend conversations at the Dolmabache Palace, in Istanbul, Türkiye, on Friday, May 16, 2025. (AP)
Both parties agreed to a great exchange of prisoners, but remained very separate in key conditions to finish the conflict.
A condition for Ukraine, which has the support of its western allies, is a high temporary fire as a first step towards a peaceful settlement. Russia, however, has pushed against the truce, which is still difficult to reach.
In Türkiye, Russia and Ukraine agreed to each exchange of 1,000 prisoners of war in what would be their greatest exchange of this type, according to the heads of both delegations. Both parties also talked about a fire and a meeting between their heads of state, according to the Chief Ukranian delegate, the Minister of Defense Rustem Uumev.
A Russian president's assistant, Vladimir Putin, said that both parties also agreed to provide detailed proposals for high fire, and Ukraine asked the heads of the state meeting that Russia took into consideration.
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The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaks on the phone during a meeting at the top of the European political community in Skanderbeg Square in Tirana, Albania, on Friday, May 16, 2025. (AP)
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Zelenskyy said he discussed negotiations with US President Donald Trump and the leaders of France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Poland. In X, he asked “difficult sanctions” against Moscow if he rejects “a high full and unconditional fire and the end of the murders.”
Zelenskyy was in Tirana, Albania, on Friday, to meet with leaders from 47 European countries to discuss security, defense and democratic standards. The leaders who met included French president Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
“The pressure on Russia must be maintained until Russia is ready to finish the war,” Zelenskyy said in X.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
