Deadly drone attacks carried out by both Russia and Ukraine have killed five people—two in Russia and three in Ukraine—just hours after a third round of ceasefire talks ended inconclusively in Istanbul.
In Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region, three people were pulled from the rubble of a destroyed home following an overnight strike. Additional casualties were reported in the central cities of Cherkasy and Zaporizhzhia, where several people sustained injuries. In Odesa, fires broke out across the Black Sea port city after the renowned Pryvoz Market—a UNESCO World Heritage site—was struck during the night, according to local authorities.
Meanwhile, Russian officials said two people were killed and 11 others injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on Sochi, located in the Krasnodar region. A separate Russian assault on Kharkiv on Thursday morning left 33 civilians wounded.
These escalations came shortly after Ukrainian and Russian delegations met on Wednesday evening in Istanbul for a third round of ceasefire negotiations. Hopes for a breakthrough were low, and the meeting reportedly lasted barely an hour.
“We did not expect a breakthrough. A breakthrough is hardly possible,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Thursday.
The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said both sides agreed to a prisoner exchange involving 1,200 individuals and noted that Russia had offered to return the bodies of 3,000 fallen Ukrainian soldiers to Kyiv. Despite this, no substantial progress was made toward halting the war, now in its fourth year, with each side accusing the other of rejecting proposals.
Ahead of the meeting, Rustem Umerov, head of the Ukrainian delegation, said Kyiv’s priority was to arrange a summit between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of August. But the Kremlin dismissed the idea as premature.
“They [Ukraine] are trying to put the cart slightly ahead of the horse,” Peskov said, adding that much groundwork remained before any such meeting could take place.
Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Honcharenko later revealed on Facebook that Umerov and Medinsky held a separate, behind-closed-doors meeting on the sidelines of the main talks, noting that the two negotiators share a “good relationship.”
The previous two ceasefire rounds were held in May and June at the behest of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has consistently expressed a desire to end the “horrible, bloody war” triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Earlier this month, Trump issued a 50-day ultimatum for both countries to reach an agreement or face “severe tariffs” against Moscow.
However, peace remains elusive. Moscow insists on sweeping preconditions, including Ukraine’s neutrality, a drastic reduction of its armed forces, and the abandonment of NATO ambitions—terms Kyiv and its Western allies consider unacceptable.
“We will do everything to make diplomacy work,” President Zelensky affirmed in
