A Russian attack on a civilian bus in Ukraine’s northeast Sumy region has killed nine people and injured four others, the Ukrainian military has said.

The attack, believed to have been carried out by a drone, happened in the city of Bilopillia – around six miles from the front-line border with Russia.

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Those on the bus were being evacuated from the city when it was struck, according to local media.

Authorities are still working to identify the victims, most of which were elderly women, the outlet said.

The injured were taken to a hospital in Sumy city, the capital of the region, where three are thought to be in a serious condition.

A period of mourning has been declared in Bilopillia, with locals pronouncing it “black Saturday”.

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Image:
Pic: National Police of Ukraine via Telegram

Russia‘s TASS state news agency said the defence ministry had claimed Russian forces struck a Ukrainian military equipment staging area in the Sumy region with drones.

The deaths prompted a strong response from Ukraine‘s National Police on the Telegram messaging app: “This is not just another shelling – it is a cynical war crime.”

Ukrainian police posted photos of a dark blue passenger van nearly destroyed, with the roof torn off and the windows blown out.

Attack comes hours after failed peace talks

The attack comes hours after Russia and Ukraine held their first direct peace talks in three years.

The meeting of Russian and Ukrainian officials in Turkey on Friday failed to broker a temporary ceasefire.

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What happened at Ukraine talks?

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Set up at short notice at Vladimir Putin‘s behest, he declined a challenge from Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet him in person and instead sent relatively junior representatives.

A source in the Ukrainian negotiation team told Sky News that Russia threatened “eternal war” during the talks.

They said the Russians were not ready to talk about technical details of a ceasefire and were waiting for superiors to approve them.

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Ukraine war Q&A on Putin and peace talks

Both countries said they agreed to trade 1,000 prisoners of war each, in what would be the biggest such exchange yet of the conflict.

But Kyiv wants the West to impose tighter sanctions unless Moscow accepts a proposal from Donald Trump for a 30-day ceasefire.