At least 32 killed in Russian missile attack on northeast Ukraine’s Sumy city center

SUMY, Ukraine — A Russian missile strike on Sunday in the city center of Ukraine’s city of Sumy killed at least 32 people, Kyiv said, with European and US officials condemning the attack — one of the deadliest in months.

Kyiv said Moscow hit the northeastern city, close to the Russian border, with two ballistic missiles on Sunday morning and that the attack also wounded nearly 100 people.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, responding to what he described as a ballistic missile attack on Palm Sunday, said: “Only bastards do this.”

US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, retired lieutenant general Keith Kellogg, said the attack by Russian forces on civilian targets “crosses any line of decency.”

“As a former military leader, I understand targeting and this is wrong,” Kellogg posted on X, formerly Twitter.

The strike came two days after US envoy Steve Witkoff travelled to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin and push Trump’s efforts to end the war.

The local emergency service said 32 people died, “including two children.” It updated the wounded toll to 99 people, including 11 children.

An AFP reporter saw bodies covered in silver sheets strewn in the center of the city, with a destroyed trolleybus. Rescuers were seen working on the rubble of a building.

One woman told AFP she heard two explosions.

‘A lot of corpses’

“This second blow… A lot of people were very badly injured. A lot of corpses,” she said, struggling to speak.

It was the second Russian attack with a large civilian death toll this month.

Trump has previously voiced anger at Moscow for “bombing like crazy” in Ukraine.

Zelensky called on the United States and Europe to give a “strong response” to Russia, adding: “Talking has never stopped ballistic missiles and bombs.”

French leader Emmanuel Macron said the strike showed Russia’s “blatant disregard for human lives, international law and the diplomatic efforts of President Trump.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “appalled” by the attack. He urged Putin to “now agree to a full and immediate ceasefire without conditions.”

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, also on X, called the strike “The Russian version of a ceasefire. Bloody Palm Sunday.”

His Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson called it a “horrific attack” that was “not the act of a country that seeks peace.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni slammed the “horrible and cowardly Russian attack.”

The EU responded strongly, too, with Hadja Lahbib, the European commissioner for crisis management, calling the strike “vile,” while European Council President Antonio Costa condemned it as a “criminal attack”.

Relentless Russian offensive

Russia did not immediately comment on the strike. Moscow has refused a US-proposed unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine.

Local authorities in Sumy published footage of bodies strewn on the street and people running for safety, with cars on fire and wounded civilians on the ground.

Russia has relentlessly attacked Ukraine in recent weeks, extending the violence wrought by its all-out invasion that has gone on for more than three years.

In early April, a Russian attack on the central city of Kryvyi Rig killed 18 people, including nine children.

Sumy has been under increasing pressure since Moscow pushed back many of Ukraine’s troops from its Kursk region inside Russia, across the border.

The eastern Ukrainian city so far has been spared the kind of fighting seen farther south, in the Donetsk region. But Kyiv for weeks has warned that Moscow could mount an offensive on Sumy.

Russia launched its invasion partially through the Sumy region and briefly occupied parts of it before being pushed back by Ukrainian forces.

On Sunday, Russia said it captured another village in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.