The Kremlin on Saturday said that a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would only be possible after both sides reached an appointment, a day after Moscow and Kiev gave their first direct lecture in more than three years, which did not result in a ceasefire.

The morning after negotiations, a Russian drone attack killed a minibus bearing evacuated civilians in the eastern Sumy region, nine people and wounded five, local authorities said.

“Yesterday, as on every day of this war, there was an opportunity to cease fire,” Zelensky wrote on social media after the attack, adding that “Russia only retains the opportunity to continue to kill”.

He repeated his call to Ukraine’s allies to intensify sanctions against Moscow.

“Without stronger sanctions, without stronger pressure on Russia, there will be no real diplomacy there,” said the Ukrainian president.

The first direct conversations since the spring of 2022 cards after Moscow’s invasion on full scale on February-between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul resulted in a specific agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners each.

Ukraine’s top dealer, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, said “next step” would be a meeting between Zelensky and Putin.

Russia said it noted the request.

“We consider it possible, but only as a result of the work and after achieving certain results in the form of an agreement between the two sides,” the Kremlin spokesman said.

Russia’s top dealer, Vladimir Medinsky said that Moscow and Kyiv would “present their vision of a possible future ceasefire” without saying when.

The Kremlin said the pow swap must first be completed and both sides have to present their visions to a ceasefire before getting the next round of negotiations.

“For now, we have to do what the delegations agreed yesterday” in Turkiye, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that “this of course means first and foremost to implement a 1,000 for 1,000 swap”.

The leader of Ukraine’s military intelligence Kirillo Budanov told the TV station TSN that he hoped the exchange would happen next week and that he saw no obstacles to swap.

Matches continue

On Saturday, there were few signs of progress towards stopping the matches.

The bus was attacked near the city of Bilopillya, the local head of society told Yuri Zarko Suspilne TV. A family of three died in the attack, the authorities said.

Elsewhere on the front lines, the Russian army said its troops caught the village of Oleksandropil in the Eastern Donetsk region, where some of the most intense battles of the war are going on.

Apart from Sumy, Russia knocked missiles and drones over eastern Ukraine and hit the regions Kherson, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, killing six and wounded more than a dozen. In Kherson, Russian shooting hit a truck that carries humanitarian help on Saturday morning.

Real steps needed

French President Emmanuel Macron said he was sure that American colleague Donald Trump would respond to Putin’s “cynicism” in Ukraine after the deadly minibus attack.

Putin refused to travel to Turkiye for the meeting. Zelensky accused him of being “scared” and Russia of not taking the negotiations “seriously”.

“Yesterday in Istanbul, everyone saw a weak and unprepared Russian delegation without significant powers. This needs to change. We need real steps to end the war,” Zelensky said on Saturday.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the results of the Istanbul talks during a phone call with his Russian colleague Sergei Lavrov on Saturday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said, adding Moscow was ready to continue working with the US on the case.

On Friday, Zelensky attended a European summit in Albania, calling for a “strong reaction” from the world if the Istanbul negotiations failed, including new sanctions.

Macron said European nations coordinated with Washington on additional sanctions if Moscow continues to refuse an “unconditional ceasefire”.

Both Moscow and Washington have spoken the need for a meeting on the conflict between Putin and US President Donald Trump.

Trump has claimed that “nothing will happen” on the conflict until he meets Putin face to face.

During the Istanbul negotiations, the Ukrainian side said Russia made “unacceptable” territorial requirements.

Moscow claims the annexation of five Ukrainian regions – four since its invasion of 2022 and Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.