A Russian ballistic missile strike in the Ukrainian city of Sumy killed at least 34 people and injured more than 100 as people were going to church for Palm Sunday, in the worst attack on civilians this year.
Two missiles landed in the crowded city centre on Sunday morning. One hit a trolley bus full of passengers. Footage from the scene showed bodies lying in the street, burning cars, and rescuers carrying bloodied survivors. Two of the dead were children.
“My seven-year-old son was running for shelter when the second missile struck. The blast ripped off a door which hit him in the leg. He has a bruise but is OK,” said Volodymyr Niankin, a film director. “My son said this is the most terrible day of his life.”
Niankin said he saw bodies on the ground. “Many of the people who died were sitting on the bus or walking in the road. A lot of people were out and about because it was a religious festival. I think this is genocide.”
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said there were “dozens of dead and wounded civilians”. He accused Russia of carrying out an act of deliberate terror and said tough reaction was needed from the US, Europe and the rest of the world.
Bodies lie on the ground after the Russian missile strike on Sumy. Photograph: Volodymyr Hordiienko/AP
“Enemy missiles hit an ordinary city street, ordinary life: houses, educational institutions, cars on the street … And this on a day when people go to church: Palm Sunday, the feast of the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem,” he posted on social media.
Zelenskyy said the Kremlin was ignoring a US proposal for a full and unconditional ceasefire. “Unfortunately, there in Moscow they are convinced they can keep killing with impunity. Action is needed to change this situation,” he said.
Officials said 117 people had been injured, including 15 children.
There was widespread international outrage. Donald Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said the attack “crosses any line of decency”.
“As a former military leader, I understand targeting and this is wrong. It is why President Trump is working hard to end this war,” he wrote on X.
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, said he was “appalled at Russia’s horrific attacks on civilians”. Vladimir Putin “must now agree to a full and immediate ceasefire without conditions”, he said.
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, agreed on the “urgent need to impose a ceasefire on Russia”. “Everyone knows it is Russia alone that wants this war,” he said. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, described the scenes from Sumy as heartbreaking and horrific.
The EU’s ambassador to Ukraine, Katarína Mathernová, called the strikes a war crime. “Nothing seems to be sacred to the Russians – neither churches, nor Ukrainian children,” she said.
Ukrainians contrasted the images of bodies in Sumy with photos of Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, warmly shaking hands with Putin on Friday. The two held four hours of talks in St Petersburg.
A wrecked bus after the missile attack. Photograph: Sumy region prosecutor’s office/AFP/Getty Images
Putin’s press spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on Sunday that the talks were going very well but that it was “impossible to expect any instant results”.
Trump has said he is “pissed off” at Russia’s failure to stop bombing, but has so far not taken any concrete measures against Moscow. Ukraine has signed up to a 30-day ceasefire that Washington proposed a month ago.
Since then, Russia has escalated its bombardment of Ukrainian cities, firing 70 missiles and 2,200 drones. Nine children and nine adults were killed earlier this month when a Russian missile hit a playground in the city of Kryvyi Rih.
Zelenskyy has been pressing allies to send another 10 Patriot air defence systems to protect Ukraine’s skies. “Talks have never stopped ballistic missiles and air bombs. We need the kind of attitude towards Russia that a terrorist deserves,” he said on Sunday.
Sumy is 15 miles (25km) from the border with Russia and is a major Ukrainian military hub. The missiles landed in a central civilian area where many people carrying willow branches for Palm Sunday were on their way to church.
Video from a car dashcam shows an orange flash as one of the missiles struck at 10.20am. Plumes of grey smoke can be seen as other vehicles reverse away from the danger and passersby run in panic.
The first missile hit a conference centre belonging to Sumy’s state university. Several children were waiting outside for an 11am theatre performance in a basement venue. The second landed 200 metres away, in Pokrovska Street, as the trolley bus rolled past.
Niankin said the centre was a unique arts hub and home to a theatre he ran. “I feel like half of my heart has been taken away. It was a place where we could play and create. Everything is destroyed: the stage, costumes, all our stuff. We have no chance to continue our work,” he said.
The director, who made a film about Sumy’s resistance to Russia’s 2022 invasion, said there were not a lot of people inside the building when it was flattened.
“It happened half an hour before the show was due to start. My son was nearby attending a class in a studio.”
Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said Russia had launched two Iskander-M missiles from its western territory in the Voronezh and Kursk regions. He identified the army forces responsible as the 112th and 448th missile brigades.
“Another proof of the godlessness of the disgusting cursed Moscow,” he said.
