More than 20 killed in Russia strike on Sumy – DW – 04/13/2025

People were out and about in the streets of the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, when two Russian ballistic missiles struck. DW has more.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack and called for the international community to respond.

“According to preliminary information, dozens of civilians were killed and wounded. Only filthy scum can act like this — taking the lives of ordinary people,” he said.

“Russia wants exactly this kind of terror and is dragging out this war. Without pressure on the aggressor, peace is impossible. Talks have never stopped ballistic missiles and aerial bombs,” he wrote.

The ballistic missile strike hit streets, residential buildings, an educational facility and multiple vehicles just as people were heading to church for Palm Sunday before the Easter holiday, Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.

Ukraine’s air force said 43 drones of 55 launched by Russia overnight to Sunday had been destroyed by Ukrainian air defenses.

It said the drones were targeting northern, southern and central areas of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said 12 Ukrainian drones were destroyed over the Rostov region and one over the Belgorod region.

Drones have featured large in the conflict in Ukraine, with both sides using them to carry out attacks, sometimes on very remote targets.

The Kremlin has said that relations between Moscow and Washington were progressing very well since US President Donald Trump took office for a second time in January.

It said, however, that there had been serious damage to bilateral ties under the previous administration of former President Joe Biden.  

“Everything is going very well,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a reporter from Russian state television.

“The fact is that reanimating relations from scratch is a very difficult task, requiring very intense diplomatic and other efforts.”

There have been several contacts between US and Russian officials since Trump returned to the White House, and the US has been leading attempts to bring about peace talks aiming to end the conflict in Ukraine.
 

More than 20 people were killed when two Russian ballistic missiles struck the center of the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday, the city’s acting mayor and Ukraine’s General Prosecutor’s Office said.

The missiles hit at around 10:15 a.m. local time (0715 GMT) while people were gathering to celebrate the Christian feast of Palm Sunday.

“On this bright Palm Sunday, our community has suffered a terrible tragedy,” Acting Mayor Artem Kobzar said in a statement on social media. “Unfortunately, we already know of more than 20 deaths.”

The Prosecutor General’s Office said initial investigations had shown that at least 21 people were killed and 34 injured in the attack. The toll of injured was later raised to 83 by the Interior Ministry, with seven children among the casualties.
 

Ukraine is continuing to defend itself from an invasion by neighboring Russia launched more than three years ago.

Sunday has seen another deadly missile attack by Russian forces on a Ukrainian city, with more than 20 people reported dead in Sumy.

Russia’s Defense Ministry has meanwhile reported that its troops have captured another village in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

You can read about these and other developments in DW’s rolling coverage of events.