Russian Missile Strike On Ukrainian City Kills 34

A Russian missile strike on Sunday on the Ukrainian city of Sumy killed at least 34 people, authorities said, as European and US leaders condemned one of the deadliest attacks in months.

Two ballistic missiles hit the centre of the northeastern city, close to the Russian border, on Sunday morning, Ukrainian authorities said.
People ran for cover amid burning cars, and bodies were left strewn in the street.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that the attack occurred on Palm Sunday, a major Christian feast.

“Only completely deranged scum can do something like this,” he said in his evening address.

Emergency services said the missiles killed 34 people, including two children, and wounded 117, including 15 children.

The dead were seen covered in silver sheets at the scene of the strike, where rescuers worked through the rubble of a building near a destroyed trolleybus.

Zelensky said eight of the 68 injured in hospitals were in serious condition.

“In addition to the university, the strike damaged five apartment buildings, cafes, shops, and the district court. In total, the Russian attack damaged 20 buildings,” said Zelensky.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “deeply alarmed and shocked” by the strike, which highlighted a “devastating pattern of similar assaults on Ukrainian cities and towns in recent weeks,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

US President Donald Trump called the strike “a horrible thing” while speaking to reporters on board Air Force One.

“I think it was terrible. And I was told they made a mistake. But I think it’s a horrible thing. I think the whole war is a horrible thing,” Trump said.

Asked to clarify what he meant by a “mistake”, the US president said that “they made a mistake… you’re gonna ask them” — without specifying who or what he was referring to.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the attack “horrifying” and a “tragic reminder of why President Trump and his administration are putting so much time and effort into trying to end this war and achieve durable peace”