President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for a strong international response against Moscow and denounced the attack, which was one of the bloodiest to hit Ukraine this year.
According to Ukraine’s interior minister Ihor Klymenko, a Russian ballistic missile strike in the center of the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday morning killed at least 21 people and injured 83 more.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for a strong international response against Moscow and denounced the attack, which was one of the bloodiest to hit Ukraine this year.
“Only scoundrels are capable of such behavior. Taking the lives of regular people,” he posted on social media, accompanied by a terrifying video that featured burned-out cars in the middle of a city street, a bus that had been demolished, and corpses on the ground.
“And this is on a day when people go to church: Palm Sunday, the feast of the Lord’s Entry into Jerusalem,” Zelenskiy stated.
According to Interior Minister Klymenko, the victims were in buildings, cars, and public transportation when the strike occurred.
“Deliberate destruction of civilians on an important church feast day,” he stated.
Russian authorities were contacted by Reuters for comment.
Security officer Andriy Kovalenko, who leads Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, said the strike followed U.S. ambassador Steve Witkoff’s visit to Moscow.
He posted on Telegram, “Russia is constructing all this so-called diplomacy… around strikes on civilians.”
U.S. President Donald Trump instructed Russia to “get moving” during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday in St. Petersburg, where Witkoff, his special envoy for Ukraine, discussed the pursuit of a peace agreement for Ukraine.
Zelenskiy urged the U.S. and Europe to take strong measures against Russia in reaction to what he called terrorism following Sunday’s strike.
“Russia is prolonging this war and wants precisely this kind of violence. Peace cannot be achieved without exerting pressure on the aggressor. Ballistic missiles and aerial bombs have never been halted by talks,” he stated.
After launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia now controls roughly 20% of the country’s eastern and southern regions. Although the battle is currently dominated by missile and drone strikes, Russian forces have recently been making incremental progress in the east.
Russia’s defense ministry claimed Saturday that Ukraine had violated an embargo on such strikes mediated by the United States by carrying out five attacks on Russian energy infrastructure in the past day.
Last month, Russia and Ukraine agreed to stop attacking one other’s energy installations, but both countries have accused one another of violating the halt on several occasions.
