Nine Ukrainian civilians fleeing heavy Russian shelling near the frontline were killed in a drone strike early Saturday, just hours after truce talks between the warring countries failed to yield a cease-fire.
The victims, including a mother, father and daughter and several elderly women, were aboard a shuttle bus evacuating people from Sumy — the northeastern city under constant assault by Russian missiles, drones and glide bomb strikes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and regional officials accused Moscow of deliberately bombing a civilian target.
“This is another war crime by Russia,” the Sumy Regional Military Administration said on Telegram. “A deliberate strike on civilian transport that poses no threat.”
The attack occurred in Bilopillia, a village in Sumy just six miles from the Russian border. The mayor, Yuri Zarko, branded the day “Black Saturday,” declaring May 17 through 19 days of mourning, in a post on Facebook.
Russian troops launched 85 shellings across multiple villages into Saturday morning, according to the local military.
Homes, hotels, civil infrastructure and other buildings were also destroyed and damaged, the military said.
At least five more people were also killed into Saturday by the Kremlin in various attacks across Ukraine’s Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions, according to local officials.
The offensive came shortly after a much-hyped meeting Thursday in Istanbul between Moscow and Kyiv — the first direct talks between the countries since the early days of Russia’s 2022 invasion — that fizzled, lasting less than two hours and failing to end in a peace deal.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who first proposed meeting with Zelensky this week, later announced he wouldn’t attend the talks, instead sending a delegation.
The two leaders have not met since 2019.
The Russian side demanded Ukraine cede four major cities as a precondition for a temporary cease-fire, a bad faith request Ukrainian officials called “unacceptable.”
“Yesterday, as on any day of this war, there was an opportunity to cease fire,” Zelensky said Saturday in a Telegram post.
“Ukraine has been offering this for a long time — a complete and unconditional ceasefire in order to save lives,” he continued. “Russia only retains the opportunity for itself to continue killing.”
The two sides did agree to a prisoner swap — the largest since the war began — plans to present each other with written peace proposals and continued talks.
A Kremlin spokesman said the possibility of a face-to-face meeting between Putin and Zelensky remains on the table.
“Such a meeting — as a result of work by the delegations of both sides — is possible upon these delegations reaching certain agreements,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters Saturday without elaborating.
But the Kremlin has insisted Putin first meet with Trump.
Trump announced plans to speak with the Russian strongman on Monday to discuss “stopping the bloodbath.”
“HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE A PRODUCTIVE DAY, A CEASEFIRE WILL TAKE PLACE, AND THIS VERY VIOLENT WAR, A WAR THAT SHOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED, WILL END,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.
Trump said their talk will also focus on trade, and be followed by a phone call to Zelensky and “various members of NATO.”
Hours before his announcement, Trump threatened in an interview with Fox News to slap “crushing” sanctions on Russia if an end to the war isn’t reached.
With Post wires
