The Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but only if certain agreements were reached between the two countries.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not specify what agreements would be required from Russia's point of view.
Putin and Zelenskiy have not met since December 2019.
Nine civilians killed
A Russian drone struck a passenger bus in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region on Saturday, killing nine people and injuring four others, Ukrainian officials said.
The attack came just hours after Moscow and Kiev held their first direct peace talks in years which failed to yield a ceasefire.
“This is another war crime by Russia — a deliberate strike on civilian transport that posed no threat,” the Sumy regional administration said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
The bus, which was attacked near the city of Bilopillya while travelling towards Sumy, was "targeted by the Russians", the military administration said.
Ukraine's Sumy border region has come under increasingly deadly bombardments by Moscow since March when Ukrainian forces were pushed out of Russia's neighbouring Kursk region, which they had partially controlled since the summer of 2024.
This latest attack came after three people were killed in Russian strikes on Friday on Ukraine's eastern Donetsk and southeastern Kherson regions.
Russian investment envoy Kirill A. Dmitriev says the Türkiye-brokered talks yielded "largest POW exchange" and "ceasefire options that may work".
Largest prisoner swap
The first direct talks since the spring of 2022 shortly after Moscow's full-scale invasion that February between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul resulted in a concrete agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners each.
But there were few signs of any progress towards halting the fighting that has dragged on for more than three years, destroyed large swathes of Ukraine and displaced millions of people.
The two sides said they would "present their vision of a possible future ceasefire", according to Russia's top negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky.
Ukraine's top negotiator, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, said the "next step" would be a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia's Vladimir Putin. Russia said it took note of the request.
Putin had declined to travel to Türkiye for the meeting, with Zelenskyy accusing him of being "afraid" and Russia of not taking the talks "seriously".
The Russian president pointed to Istanbul as a potential venue for “direct talks” with Kiev. The Ukrainian leader swiftly responded by proposing a face-to-face meeting. Will the twain meet?
Unconditional ceasefire
Zelenskyy attended a European summit in Albania alongside the leaders of France, Germany, Britain and Poland, among others, where he urged a "strong reaction" from the world if the Istanbul talks failed, including new sanctions.
French President Emmanuel Macron said European nations were coordinating with the United States on additional sanctions against Russia should Moscow continue to refuse an "unconditional ceasefire".
Both Moscow and Washington have talked up the need for a meeting on the conflict between Putin and US President Donald Trump.
Trump has said "nothing's going to happen" on the conflict until he meets Putin face-to-face.
During the Istanbul talks, a Ukrainian source told AFP that Russia was advancing hardline territorial demands that Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy called "unacceptable".
Moscow claims annexation of five Ukrainian regions four since its 2022 invasion, and Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.
Russia's defence ministry said its air defences destroyed 121 Ukrainian drones overnight, the majority over Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014.
