Thirty-four people were killed and scores more injured in a Russian missile attack on April 13 in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy, Ukrainian officials have said.
“Only scoundrels can act like this, taking the lives of ordinary people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in the aftermath of the reported attack.
He also called for a robust response to the reported attack, which occurred amid ongoing U.S. efforts to secure a limited cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine.
Artem Kobzar, acting mayor of Sumy, has declared three days of mourning for victims of the strike, which occurred on the Christian holiday of Palm Sunday.
Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine’s interior minister, condemned what he described as the “deliberate destruction of civilians on an important church feast day.”
According to Klymenko, victims had been on the streets, inside cars, and on public transport vehicles when two Russian ballistic missiles struck the city center.
Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, claimed that the missiles had contained cluster munitions.
“The Russians are doing this to kill as many civilians as possible,” he said.
According to Ukrainian officials, 34 people were killed—and more than 100 others injured—in what is being described as the largest single Russian attack on Ukraine so far this year.
“From the point of view of warfare norms and rules, this was a legitimate military target which was successfully hit and eliminated by using an Iskander-M ballistic missile system,” Korotchenko told the news agency.
The Epoch Times could not independently verify the Russian claims.
Located in the Ukrainian region of the same name, Sumy sits roughly 15 miles from the Russian border. In summer 2024, Kyiv used the city as a staging ground for a surprise cross-border offensive into Russia’s western Kursk region.
‘Horrible Thing’
The leaders of the UK, Germany, and Italy all condemned the strike, which Friedrich Merz, Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting, described as a “war crime.”“There is no greater example of perfidy: a targeted and planned war crime,” he said in an interview with Germany’s ARD broadcaster.
Merz, who is widely expected to be elected chancellor early next month, also voiced support for providing Ukraine with German long-range Taurus missiles with a view to enhancing Kyiv’s deterrence capabilities.
Olaf Scholz, Germany’s outgoing chancellor, said the reported attack served to show how Russian President Vladimir Putin responds to cease-fire proposals.
“These attacks show just what Russia’s supposed readiness for peace is worth,” Scholz wrote in a social media post.
U.S. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, described the reported Russian attack on Sumy as a “horrible thing.”
Without elaborating, he said: “I was told [the Russians] made a mistake.”
In March, during separate talks with Russian and Ukrainian officials, U.S. negotiators brokered a limited truce aimed at ending hostilities in the Black Sea.
Within the context of those talks, Moscow and Kyiv both also pledged to abide by a 30-day moratorium on attacks against each other’s energy infrastructure.
Since then, however, the two sides have accused one another of repeatedly breaking the terms of the truce, casting doubts on the efficacy of U.S. peacemaking efforts.
On April 14, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, when asked about the reported Russian attack on Sumy, said he hoped that the United States understood that Putin was “mocking their goodwill.”
“Ukraine unconditionally agreed to a cease-fire over a month ago,” Sikorski said upon his arrival in Luxembourg for a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
“The heinous attacks on Kryvyi Rih [on April 4] and on Sumy is Russia’s mocking answer.”
Sikorski voiced hope that the United States would make “the right decisions” in response to the reported missile attacks.
