Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s forces launch ‘biggest drone attack’ ahead of Trump ceasefire call – UK Times

Pope Leo will have a private meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy later on Sunday following the pope’s inaugural Mass, the Vatican said.

Leo spoke with Zelenskiy on Monday in the first known conversation between the newly-elected pontiff and a foreign leader, underscoring his concern for the war in Ukraine.

Speaking moments after Sunday’s Mass, Leo mentioned the “martyred” Ukraine and called for a “just and lasting peace”.

US Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have been reunited, at the inaugural mass for the new Pope.

Mr Vance, a Catholic convert who clashed with Pope Leo’s predecessor Francis over the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies, led a US delegation alongside secretary of state Marco Rubio, who is also Catholic, at the mass on Sunday.

Mr Zelensky is also in attendance, alongside his wife Olena Zelenska, his chief adviser Andriy Yermak and foreign minister Andriy Sybiha.

Mr Zelensky’s spokesperson suggested they were open to further peace talks in Rome after the ceremony, following the success of the Ukrainian president’s impromptu meeting with Donald Trump at Pope Francis’ funeral.

Mr Zelensky and Mr Vance were seen greeting one another in the run-up to the ceremony. The pair smiled as they shook hands just a few months after they were locked in a fiery exchange in the White House, when Mr Vance accused Mr Zelensky of being ungrateful for American support for Ukraine.

After the first direct peace talks in Turkey, the Kremlin said on Russian president Vladimir Putin could meet Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy, but only if certain agreements were reached.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov did not specify what agreements would be required from Russia’s point of view. Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky have not met since December 2019.

President Zelensky had challenged the Kremlin leader to meet him in Turkey this week but Mr Putin instead sent a team of aides and officials to meet Ukrainian negotiators on Friday for the first bilateral, face-to-face talks since March 2022.

Ukraine said it had raised the issue of a Putin-Zelenskiy meeting at the talks.

Mr Peskov said Russia considered such a meeting was possible, but only as a result of work between the two sides to “achieve certain results in the form of agreements”.

He added: “At the same time, when signing documents that the delegations are to agree upon, the main and fundamental thing for us remains who exactly will sign these documents from the Ukrainian side.”

Mr Peskov did not elaborate on that remark.

Russia launched one of its most intense drone attacks on Ukraine overnight into Sunday, since the start of its full-scale invasion in 2022.

According to Ukraine’s air force, Russia fired a total of 273 explosive drones and decoys. Of these, 88 were intercepted, while a further 128 were likely lost due to electronic jamming.

The attacks targeted the Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Donetsk regions.

Kyiv regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk said a 28-year-old woman was killed in a drone strike, and three others –including a four-year-old child – were wounded.

The number of drones fired exceeds Russia’s previously known largest single drone attack during the war, when 267 drones were launched on the eve of the invasion’s third anniversary.

The barrage came after the first direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv in years, held on Friday, failed to produce a ceasefire.

After a night of sustained Russian drone attacks, a woman was killed in the capital region and three, including a child, were injured.

“Unfortunately, as a result of the enemy attack in the Obukhiv district, a woman died from her injuries,” Mykola Kalashnik, governor of the Kyiv region, posted on the Telegram messaging app.

As of 0300 GMT, Kyiv, the region around it and most of the eastern half of Ukraine had been under air raid alerts for six hours.

Several killed after Russian strike hits civilian bus in Ukraine’s Sumy region

The military said on Telegram that air defence units were engaged several times, trying to repel attacks.

Ukraine has accused Russia of stepping up its attacks following peace talks on Friday.

The first direct talks in three years between Russia and Ukraine on Friday failed to broker the ceasefire Kyiv and its allies have been urging in the more than three-year-old war.

“It’s been a tough night. The Russians have always used war and attacks to intimidate everyone in negotiations,” Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, said on Telegram about Sunday’s attack.

On Saturday, a Russian drone attack killed nine civilians after hitting a shuttle bus in the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine, Kyiv said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack “deliberate” and urged stronger sanctions on Moscow, which said it had attacked a military facility.

A senior Ukrainian official at the peace talks in Istanbul accused Moscow on Friday of introducing “unacceptable demands” that had not been previously discussed, including calls for Kyiv’s forces to withdraw from large swaths of territory they control in order for a complete ceasefire to be implemented.

The official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to make official statements, said it seemed as if the Russian delegation “deliberately wants to throw nonstarters on the table in order to walk away from today’s meeting without any results”.

He said the Ukrainian side reiterated that it remained focused on achieving real progress – an immediate ceasefire and a pathway to substantive diplomacy – “just like the US, European partners, and other countries proposed”, the official added.

The video shows the bus was reduced to a twisted heap of metal in the strike.

According to the country’s National Mine Action Authority, an estimated 340 civilians have been killed by exploding landmines since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022, with another 1,195 people injured by.

Our reporter Bryony Gooch speaks to two survivors who have lived through that pain, and don’t want anyone else to have to experience it:

The UK has condemned a Russian drone attack that killed nine people in Ukraine early on Saturday.

The attack, which struck a passenger bus in Ukraine’s north-eastern Sumy region, came just hours after the first face-to-face talks between Ukrainian and Russian negotiations in Istanbul, Turkey.

Foreign secretary David Lammy said he was “appalled” by the incident, adding in a post on social media: “If Putin is serious about peace, Russia must agree to a full and immediate ceasefire, as Ukraine has done.”

Regional authorities described the attack as “another war crime by Russia” and declared a period of mourning until Monday.

Christopher McKeon has the full report: