A Russian drone attack on a bus in northeastern Ukraine killed at least nine people and injured seven others, Ukrainian officials said Saturday, just hours after the two countries met for the first direct peace talk in three years.

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — Russia and Ukraine held their first direct peace talks in three years Friday, gathering in Istanbul for Turkish-brokered negotiations, but officials and observers expected them to yield little immediate progress on stopping the more than three-year war.

Russia said on Friday that the first direct talks with Ukraine in more than three years had yielded a deal to swap 1,000 prisoners of war each soon and to resume talks after each side had set out its vision for a future ceasefire.

From May 12 to 14, systematic Russian drone and artillery attacks killed four residents and wounded 16 others in Ukraine’s eastern region. U.S. officials warn th

Many Russian soldiers say they would see a cease-fire along the current front lines as a failure, hinting at the nationalist discontent the Kremlin could face in accepting a cease-fire.

Russia has sentenced an Australian man to 13 years in a maximum-security prison for fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, state prosecutors in the Russian-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine said Friday.