Germany, France, the U.K. and Poland outmaneuvered the Kremlin by persuading Ukraine’s Zelensky to accept Trump’s cease-fire demand. Russia’s leader balked.

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.

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.