Russia and Ukraine step up war on eve of peace talks

On the eve of peace talks, Ukraine and Russia sharply ramped up the war between both sides, with one of the biggest drone battles in their conflict, a Russian highway bridge blown up over a passenger train and an ambitious attack on nuclear-capable bombers deep in Siberia.

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MOSCOW - On the eve of peace talks, Ukraine and Russia sharply ramped up the war between both sides, with one of the biggest drone battles in their conflict, a Russian highway bridge blown up over a passenger train and an ambitious attack on nuclear-capable bombers deep in Siberia.

After days of uncertainty over whether Ukraine's delegation would even attend the peace talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Defence Minister Rustem Umerov would sit down with Russian officials at the second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on June 2.

The talks, proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, have so far yielded the biggest prisoner exchange since the war began but no sense of any consensus on how to halt the fighting.

Amid talk of peace, though, there was much war.

At least seven people were killed and 69 injured when a highway bridge in Russia's Bryansk region, neighbouring Ukraine, was blown up over a passenger train heading to Moscow with 388 people on board.

No one has yet claimed responsibility.