Zelensky calls for 'unconditional ceasefire' after Russian attack kills nine
KIEV
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Wednesday for an "immediate, full, and unconditional ceasefire", hours after a Russian drone strike on a bus killed nine and as his top aide met Kiev's allies in London.
Images published by Dnipropetrovsk Governor Sergiy Lysak showed a bus with a hole punctured through its ceiling and what appeared to be blood and shattered glass scattered across its floors.
Zelensky called it an "egregiously brutal attack and an absolutely deliberate war crime."
"In Ukraine, we insist on an immediate, full, and unconditional ceasefire," he said on social media, adding that "stopping the killings is the number one task."
Lysak said nine people had been killed and 49 wounded in the attack on the southern town of Marganets.
Zelensky also repeated his call for a partial halt on some missile and drone attacks.
"We are also ready for an immediate ceasefire at least for civilian targets," he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a surprise Easter truce over the weekend.
It saw fighting dip and air attacks practically halt for 30 hours.
But Ukraine and its allies dismissed it as a PR exercise from the Kremlin leader, saying Putin had no interest in real peace talks.
Russia launched more than 100 drones at Ukraine between Tuesday evening and early Wednesday, the Ukrainian air force said.
Ukrainian authorities also reported fires in several regions overnight after Russian attacks.
Strikes were reported in the regions of Kiev, Kharkiv, Poltava and Odesa.
In Russia, one person was reported wounded by Ukrainian shelling in the Belgorod region, the local governor said.
Zelensky's chief of staff, defence and foreign ministers were in London Wednesday for talks with Kiev's allies -- downgraded at the last minute after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio cancelled plans to attend.
'Peace, or U.S. will walk away'
U.S. Vice President JD Vance warned Wednesday that the United States would "walk away" unless Russia and Ukraine agree a peace deal, as envoys from Washington, Kiev and European nations gathered for downgraded talks in Britain.
"We've issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it's time for them to either say 'yes', or for the United States to walk away from this process," Vance told reporters in India.
U.S. media reported that President Donald Trump was ready to accept recognition of annexed land in Crimea as Russian territory, and Vance said land swaps would be fundamental to any deal.
"That means the Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own," he added.
The reports said the proposal was first raised at a meeting with European nations in Paris last week.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy had been due to lead a meeting of foreign ministers in London on Wednesday, but his ministry said the talks had been downgraded, a sign of the difficulties surrounding the negotiations.
"The Ukraine Peace Talks meeting with Foreign Ministers today is being postponed. Official-level talks will continue," the Foreign Office said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that "as far as we understand, it has not yet been possible to reconcile positions on any issues, which is why this meeting did not take place".
U.S. Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg is still expected to attend, along with Emmanuel Bonne, diplomatic adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron.
Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said he had arrived in London with Defence Minister Rustem Umerov and Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga, who is "likely" to meet Lammy.
"Despite everything, we will work for peace," Yermak wrote on Telegram.
A Ukraine presidency source later told AFP that the delegation would meet with Kellogg, and that "there will be more meetings with Europeans, different meetings".
U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff is to visit Moscow this week.
According to The Financial Times, President Vladimir Putin told Witkoff he was prepared to halt the invasion and freeze the current front line if Russia's sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula, annexed in 2014, was recognised.
Peskov responded by saying that "a lot of fakes are being published at the moment", according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
Zelensky said Tuesday that his country would be ready for direct talks with Russia only after a ceasefire, though the Kremlin has said it cannot rush into a ceasefire deal.
Trump promised on the campaign trail to strike a deal between Moscow and Kiev in 24 hours but has since failed to secure concessions from Putin to halt his troops in Ukraine.
He said at the weekend he hoped an agreement could be struck "this week".
Trump 'frustrated'
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he had presented a U.S. plan to end the war and discussed it with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during a phone conversation after the Paris meeting last week.
Both Rubio and Trump have warned since that the United States could walk away from peace talks unless it saw quick progress.
Trump "wants to see this war end... and he has grown frustrated with both sides of this war, and he's made that very known", his spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.
Rubio had said in Paris he would go to London if he thought his attendance could be useful.
But Lammy wrote on X late Tuesday that he had instead had a "productive call" with Rubio.
Trump proposed an unconditional ceasefire in March, the principle of which was accepted by Kiev but rejected by Putin.
The White House welcomed a separate agreement by both sides to halt attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days, but the Kremlin has said it considers that moratorium to have expired.
