The famous Pryvoz market in Odesa, Ukraine was damaged by an overnight strike

 After a brief third round of ceasefire talks ended in Istanbul, two Russians and three Ukrainians were killed in drone strikes by Moscow and Kiev. After a strike in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region, three bodies were discovered in the rubble of a house. In the cities of Cherkasy and Zaporizhzhia, several others were injured. Authorities reported that an overnight attack caused several fires to spread throughout the Black Sea port city of Odesa, including the renowned Pryvoz market, a Unesco world heritage site. In the meantime, a Ukrainian drone strike that occurred overnight on Sochi in Russia's Krasnodar region, according to Russian authorities, left two people dead and injured eleven others. Another Russian attack on the Ukrainian city Kharkiv on Thursday morning also left 33 injured.

 Ukrainian and Russian delegations met on Wednesday evening in Istanbul in the third round of ceasefire talks.

 Neither side appeared to harbour much hope for progress before start of the talks, which according to the head of the Ukrainian delegation lasted barely an hour.

 The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said both countries agreed to swap 1,200 prisoners of war and that Russia had offered to transfer 3,000 bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers back to Kyiv.

 But no tangible steps were taken to end the conflict, now well into its fourth year, and both sides accused the other of rejecting their ideas.

 "We were not anticipating a breakthrough. A breakthrough is hardly possible," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday.

 Rustem Umerov, the head of the Ukrainian delegation, stated that arranging a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before the end of August was the "priority" for Kyiv.

The head of the Ukrainian delegation stated that the third round of ceasefire talks in Istanbul lasted only an hour. But Peskov poured cold water on the idea, saying it was "premature" for the two presidents to meet.

 He stated, "They [Ukraine] are trying to put the cart slightly ahead of the horse," adding that a great deal more work needed to be completed before a meeting of this kind could take place. On the sidelines of the main talks, Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Hocharenko posted on Facebook that a separate meeting between Umerov and Medinsky had taken place behind closed doors. According to Hocharenko, Medinsky and Umerov have a "good relationship." At the request of US President Donald Trump, the first two rounds of ceasefire talks were held in May and June. Trump has repeatedly stated that he wants the "horrible, bloody war" that started when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 to end. Earlier this month Trump set a deadline of 50 days for Russia and Ukraine to end the war, threatening "severe tariffs" on Moscow if a deal is not reached.

 Russia has long refused to budge on its preconditions for peace - namely the removal of the "root causes" of the war, which include Ukraine becoming a neutral state, dramatically reducing its military and abandoning its Nato aspirations.

 None of these are acceptable to Kyiv, or to its Western allies.

 Following the talks on Thursday, Zelensky declared on social media, "We will do everything to make diplomacy work." "However, Russia must bring an end to this war that it started."