Russian missiles struck the heart of the Ukrainian city of Sumy as people gathered to celebrate Palm yesterday, killing at least 32 people, officials said.
It was the second large-scale attack to claim civilian lives in just over a week.
The two ballistic missiles hit around 10:15 a.m., officials said. Images from the scene on official channels showed lines of black body bags lying on the side of the road, while more bodies were seen wrapped in foil blankets among the debris.
Video footage also showed fire crews fighting to extinguish the shells of burned-out cars among the rubble from damaged buildings.
The dead included two children, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said in a statement. A further 99 people were wounded, including 11 children, it said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the attack.
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“Only filthy scum can act like this – taking the lives of ordinary people,” he said. The head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andriy Yermak, said the strike also used cluster munitions in an attempt to kill as many people as possible. The Associated Press was unable to verify the claim.
The attack on Sumy followed a deadly missile strike on Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih on April 4 that killed some 20 people, including nine children.
Zelenskyy also called for a global response to the attack. “Talks have never stopped ballistic missiles and aerial bombs. What’s needed is an attitude toward Russia that a terrorist deserves,” he said.
Other world leaders also condemned the attack, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying that it undermined Washington-led peace talks between the two sides.
“Everyone knows: This war was initiated by Russia alone. And today, it is clear that Russia alone chooses to continue it – with blatant disregard for human lives, international law and the diplomatic efforts of President Trump,” he wrote in a statement. Elsewhere in Ukraine, a 62-year-old woman was killed in Russian shelling of the Ukrainian city of Kherson, regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said yesterday. The mayor of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, also said yesterday that a Russian strike had hit one of the city’s kindergartens, shattering windows and damaging the building’s facade. No casualties were reported.
The strikes come a day after Russia and Ukraine’s senior diplomats accused each other of violating a tentative U.S.-brokered deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure, underscoring the challenges of negotiating an end to the three-year war.