A Russian drone strike on a passenger bus in the northeastern Ukrainian town of Bilopillia killed nine civilians and wounded four others on Saturday morning, according to local officials.

The Sumy regional military administration confirmed the casualties and said emergency responders, medics, and law enforcement were at the scene providing assistance and conducting an investigation into the attack.

The strike occurred just hours after Russia and Ukraine held their first face-to-face peace talks since the start of the full-scale war in 2022. Although the Istanbul meeting failed to yield a ceasefire agreement, both sides reportedly agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war—a rare instance of cooperation in an otherwise intractable conflict.

Ukrainian authorities condemned the drone strike as a sign that Moscow is not negotiating in earnest. “This is what Russia means by diplomacy,” one official remarked.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has maintained that any peace agreement must include the full withdrawal of Russian forces from all occupied Ukrainian territory. The Kremlin, however, continues to demand international recognition of its territorial claims in eastern Ukraine.

The Bilopillia attack is one of the deadliest recent strikes on civilian infrastructure and underscores the precarious nature of the current diplomatic overtures. Despite modest signs of progress, the conflict remains far from resolution.