Russian Drone Strikes Shuttle Bus in Ukraine

A Russian drone attack killed at least nine people on Saturday after hitting a shuttle bus carrying civilians in the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine, according to local residents and Ukrainian authorities.

The deadly strike came hours after Ukrainian and Russian officials sat down face to face for the first time in more than three years in Istanbul.

At the brief meeting, the two sides agreed on a deal to swap 1,000 prisoners each. But the talks and the frenetic swirl of diplomatic activity leading up to them did nothing to bring the two sides closer to negotiating an end to the war and easing the daily carnage, with soldiers on both sides being killed and injured on the front every day, and the civilian toll steadily rising.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Saturday that the strike on the bus was a “deliberate attack on civilians.”

“The Russians could not have failed to understand what kind of vehicle they were targeting,” he said in a statement.

The Russian military did not have any immediate comment on the attack.

In his statement, Mr. Zelensky said he believed that the only way the Kremlin would make peace is if President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia were forced to do so.