SUMY, Ukraine--Two Russian ballistic missiles slammed into the heart of the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday, killing 34 people and wounding 117 in the deadliest strike on Ukraine this year, officials said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy demanded a tough international response against Moscow over the attack, which came with U.S. President Donald Trump's push to rapidly end the war struggling to make a breakthrough.
Dead bodies were strewn on the ground in the middle of a city street near a destroyed bus and burnt-out cars in a video posted by Zelenskiy on social media."Only scoundrels can act like this, taking the lives of ordinary people," he said, noting that the attack had come on Palm Sunday when some people were going to church.
"You know, the people who are fighting against us always say that they are Orthodox (Christian) believers, that they believe in God, but we have experienced first-hand terrorism today. I have no words," said 27-year old PhD student Yevhen, a local resident who declined to give his surname.
The leaders of Britain, Germany and Italy condemned the attack. "These attacks show just what Russia's supposed readiness for peace is worth," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on social media.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a statement expressed condolences for the victims and said the attack was a "tragic reminder of why President Trump and his Administration are putting so much time and effort into trying to end this war."
Zelenskiy, in an interview with CBS News' "60 Minutes"aired later on Sunday, urged Trump to visit Ukraine. "Please come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children, destroyed or dead," Zelenskiy said in a video clip the programme posted on social media.
Under Trump's administration, U.S. officials have held separate rounds of talks with Kremlin and Kyiv officials to try to move toward a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine.Russian authorities did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Russia denies targeting civilians but thousands have been killed and injured in its invasion of Ukraine.
A separate Russian drone attack injured five people in the Black Sea port city of Odesa late on Sunday and damaged a medical facility, regional officials said.
The Sunday attacks followed a missile strike in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskiy's hometown and far from the ground war's front lines in the east and south, earlier this month that killed 20 people, including nine children.Sumy, with a population of around a quarter of a million and located just over 25 km (15 miles) from the Russian border, became a garrison city when Kyiv's forces launched an incursion into Russia in August that has since been largely repelled.
