Nine Ukrainians killed in brutal Russian drone attack following failed cease-fire talks

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 “unacce...