RUSSIA launched a barrage of rockets on the Ukrainian city of Sumy today, killing at least three people and injuring many others.

The attack came hours after delegates from Russia and Ukraine met for direct talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul and days after the Ukrainians launched a surprise attack deep in Russian territory that reportedly destroyed 40 war planes.

According to authorities, Tuesday’s attack by Russia struck apartment buildings and a medical facility in the centre of the north-eastern city.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that one of the rockets fired at Sumy pierced the wall of an apartment building but failed to detonate.

Mr Zelensky posted to Telegram: “That’s all you need to know about Russia’s ‘desire’ to end this war.

“It is clear that without global pressure, without decisive action from the United States, Europe and everyone in the world who holds power, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will not agree even to a ceasefire.”

At talks in Istanbul on Monday, delegations from the warring countries agreed to swap dead and wounded troops.

After the talks the head of the Russian delegation, presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky said that Russia had handed a two-part memorandum to the Ukrainian side which included a range of ways to cease fire.

The war has killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations, as well as tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides along the roughly 620-mile front line.

A senior Ukrainian delegation led by First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko has travelled to Washington for talks about defence, sanctions and postwar recovery, Andrii Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said on Tuesday.

The delegation will meet representatives from both major US political parties, as well as with advisers to US President Donald Trump, Mr Yermak said.

Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president who now serves as deputy head of the country’s security council chaired by Mr Putin, indicated today that there would be no let-up in Russia’s invasion of its neighbour.

“The Istanbul talks are not for striking a compromise peace on someone else’s delusional terms but for ensuring our swift victory and the complete destruction of [Ukraine’s government],” he said.

In an apparent comment on the latest Ukrainian strikes, he declared that “retribution is inevitable.”

“Our army is pushing forward and will continue to advance,” Mr Medvedev said, saying that “everything that needs to be blown up will be blown up and those who must be eliminated will be.”