"An enemy drone hit a bus near Bilubiliya, killing nine people and wounding four," the Sumy border region's military administration said via Telegram, noting that the bus was heading toward the border city of Sumy with Russia.
Ihor Tkachento, head of the regional military administration, said medical teams had been dispatched to the site of the bombing in the city, which has been under increasing Russian attack, including attempts to infiltrate the area by ground forces.
Last April, the city was hit by a Russian ballistic missile strike, killing 32 people and wounding dozens more. Authorities said at the time that the attack hit a bus and other vehicles.
Istanbul talks
The shelling of Sumy comes hours after the conclusion of the first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine since March 2022.
Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky reported on Friday that an agreement had been reached on a broad prisoner exchange involving 1,000 people from each side, but the meeting ended without a ceasefire being announced.
During a press conference, the Russian negotiator confirmed that the two sides "will work on detailing their vision for the truce."
The head of the Ukrainian negotiating delegation, Rustam Umerov, explained that the Ukrainian side also proposed a meeting between the two countries' presidents, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky. The Russian negotiator said that Moscow "took note of the request."
Both Russia and Ukraine described the results of the talks as positive, and Türkiye considered them an important step toward strengthening trust between the two sides.
In this context, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Friday that it was agreed that the two sides must exchange, in writing, the conditions for a ceasefire.
Since February 24, 2022, Russia has launched a military attack on its neighbor, Ukraine, and has made ending the offensive conditional on Kyiv abandoning its membership in Western military entities. Kyiv considers this "interference" in its affairs.
