Talks aimed at ending war in Ukraine begin today

We're starting in Ukraine this morning, where attacks from Russia have intensified. Thirty people killed when a bus was bombed in Kramatorsk in the east, once home to over two hundred thousand people, now reduced to around thirty thousand. Sirens constantly sounding in Kyiv, and people wondering how to survive another winter of no heating and the threat of attacks. Talks aimed at ending the war are due in Washington again today. Christopher Miller is with us. He's chief Ukraine correspondent for the Financial Times. Morning, Christopher. Thanks for talking to us again.

Good morning. Nice to be back.

Tell us more about what happened in Kramatorsk.

Well, Kramatorsk is a city of, uh, used to be about two hundred thousand people, but these days it's well less than, than half that. And unfortunately for it, it sits smack on the front, front line and, and in Russia's crosshairs, um, at the moment. So yesterday morning, as people, uh, were coming and going, uh, uh, between home and work, there was a Russian glide bomb. This is, um, a, a bomb that, that, uh, can weigh anywhere between two hundred and fifty kilos to three thousand. And, um, they're, they're launched by, by jets, and they've got these fins that flip out so they can glide toward their targets. Russia released one of those on a busy bus stop, destroying two buses and killing thirty people, injuring another eighteen in one of the, you know, most, uh, brutal and, and deadliest attacks we've seen in, in recent months.

What's it been like living in Ukraine this week? The number of, of attacks that we're hearing reported seems to have gone up.

It has. There's been a real intensification of, of attacks over the past month or so. Um, it's, uh, you know, I mean, con- daily life is just constantly disrupted. Um, you know, we've already had several air raid sirens overnight and early this morning. Um, I just listened to one, um, shortly ago before we got on the phone here. Um, you know, people are going about their, their daily lives as best they can, but it's, it's just constant disruption. Um, there are these Russian jet drones that are buzzing overhead, and they swoop in and, and dive into their targets, and we've seen attacks on energy infrastructure. Last night, after I finished some work, I was walking around town and I noticed all of the streetlights were out. The metro had stopped working. Trolley buses had stopped working because there was an attack on a substation, and so there was no power in a city of nearly four million people. So it's, it's, it's getting much worse, and a lot of people are very concerned about what will happen in winter and starting to make their contingency plans, possibly for moving out of the city.

Ukraine's president, uh, is heading for talks in Washington today. He wants a European delegation to join. Wh-who is going to be there?

Yeah, so the Ukrainians are sending, um, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov, who used to be the head of the military intelligence and is now one of the chief peace, uh, negotiations, uh, negotiators, uh, as well as three other, uh, Ukrainian officials to meet with Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, and Steve