Russian ballistic missiles ripped through the busy center of Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy on Sunday, officials said, killing at least 35 people and striking terror into residents who were out enjoying Palm Sunday and attending morning church services.
It was the deadliest attack of the conflict this year. Two children were among the scores of people killed in the strikes on the city’s center, while 117 people were wounded, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes were carried out by ballistic missiles; one hit a university building and another “exploded right over (a) street,” he said.
Zelensky also called for a “strong response from the world” to the attack, which came two days after top Trump administration official Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, with video showing the two warmly shaking hands before a four hour meeting.
Ukrainian officials said that preliminary information indicates cluster munitions were used in the attack. The second of the two explosions was described as being likely filled with munitions that “exploded mid-air to inflict maximum damage on people,” according to the head of the region’s military administration.
“Russia wants exactly this kind of terror and is dragging out this war,” Zelensky said. “Without pressure on the aggressor, peace is impossible. Talking has never stopped ballistic missiles and bombs. We need to treat Russia as a terrorist deserves.”
When asked about the attack, Moscow maintained that the Russian military “strikes exclusively at military and near-military targets.”
“I can only repeat and remind you of the repeated statements of both our president (Vladimir Putin) and our army representatives,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
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Russian strikes on Ukrainian city of Sumy kill 35, in deadliest attack this year
By Svitlana Vlasova and Rosa Rahimi, CNN
7 minute read
Updated 5:03 PM EDT, Mon April 14, 2025
Video shows aftermath of Russia's deadly Palm Sunday strike in ...
00:48
CNN
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Russian ballistic missiles ripped through the busy center of Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy on Sunday, officials said, killing at least 35 people and striking terror into residents who were out enjoying Palm Sunday and attending morning church services.
It was the deadliest attack of the conflict this year. Two children were among the scores of people killed in the strikes on the city’s center, while 117 people were wounded, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes were carried out by ballistic missiles; one hit a university building and another “exploded right over (a) street,” he said.
Zelensky also called for a “strong response from the world” to the attack, which came two days after top Trump administration official Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, with video showing the two warmly shaking hands before a four hour meeting.
Ukrainian officials said that preliminary information indicates cluster munitions were used in the attack. The second of the two explosions was described as being likely filled with munitions that “exploded mid-air to inflict maximum damage on people,” according to the head of the region’s military administration.
“Russia wants exactly this kind of terror and is dragging out this war,” Zelensky said. “Without pressure on the aggressor, peace is impossible. Talking has never stopped ballistic missiles and bombs. We need to treat Russia as a terrorist deserves.”
When asked about the attack, Moscow maintained that the Russian military “strikes exclusively at military and near-military targets.”
“I can only repeat and remind you of the repeated statements of both our president (Vladimir Putin) and our army representatives,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
The attacks targeted Ukrainian commanding officers, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Telegram. It claimed that Kyiv “continues to use the Ukrainian population as a human shield” by “holding events with the participation of military personnel in the center of a densely populated city.”
International condemnation of the strikes from Ukraine’s allies was swift.
The Trump administration’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg questioned the targeting of the attack, which he said “crosses any line of decency.”
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said he was told Russia “made a mistake.”
“I think it was terrible. And I was told they made a mistake. But I think it’s a horrible thing,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One late Sunday. When asked to elaborate on Monday, Trump said: “the mistake was letting the war happen.”
While he acknowledged that Putin started the war against Ukraine, he also continued to cast blame on Zelensky and former US President Joe Biden. “When you start a war you got to know that you can win the war,” Trump said referring to Zelensky. “You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles.”