Two Russian ballistic missiles fell on Sunday morning in a city center in the north -East of Ukraine, according to officials, killing at least 34 people in what seemed to be the deadliest attack on civilians this year.
The noon strike in the city of Sumy was the most recent in a series of intensification of Russian attacks in Ukraine urban centers that have inflicted strong civilian victims despite the push of the Trump administration due to a cessation of fire.
Officials said that the city center was full of civilians enjoying Palmera Sunday, a popular Christian celebration in Ukraine, when the missiles reached. The animated streets became the scenes of butchers: the video of the consequences showed mangony and bloody bodies that put the motionless cars, burning and debris that covered the road as shouts and sirens turned to the bottom.
Two children were among the dead and at least 117 people were injured, according to Ukraine Emergency Services.
« People were hurt in the middle of the street: in cars, by public transport, in their houses, » the Minister of the Interior, Ihor Klymenko, Lamented on social media.
Volodymyr Boiko, a 69 -year -old Sumy resident, was on the back of a bus that hit one of the missiles. He survived with cuts on his face, but said that the sitting towards the front were not so lucky and took the full force of the explosion. « These were bodies, stacked one another, » said Boiko.
He compared the scene off the bus to a « horror movie », adding that « it was the first time in my life that I saw the people I mutilated. »
The strikes arrived just over a week after a The Russian missile came near a playground in the central city of Kryvyi RihKilling 19 people, including nine children. In this attack and on Sunday, according to Ukrainian officials, Russia used ballistic missiles, traveling at high speeds, which made them very difficult to demolish.
In general, civilian deaths have increased since talks on the cessation of fire mediated by the United States in March. The United Nations he said Last week 164 civilians died in Ukraine last month, 50 percent increase from February and 70 percent more than the same period of the year before.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, of Ukraine, who has accused Russia of using fire cessation talks to stop over time, said that the Sumy attack showed that Moscow had no real interest in a cessation of fire despite the efforts of the Trump administration to achieve one.
« We need a strong reaction from the world. From the United States, from Europe, everyone in the world who wants this war and the murders to end, » said Mr. Zelensky in a Message posted to Telegram. « Russia seeks exactly this kind of terror and is dragging the war. »
Both Russia and Ukraine have committed Stop attacks on energy infrastructure and black seaBut an agreement has not yet come into force. Russia has also rejected a complete removal of 30 unconditional days that Ukraine had accepted in the US instance.
Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Saturday that Russia had increased its attacks on civilian areas since the cessation of fire began last month in Saudi Arabia.
« This is Russia’s response to all peace proposals, » Sybiha told the state news agency Ucrinform. « They delay, manipulate and play with their partners to continue aggression. »
Ukraine allies It echoed these feelings on Sunday in what seemed to be a coordinated answer to condemn the strike in Sumy.
« Everyone knows: this war was started only by Russia. And today, of course, Russia only decides to continue -with a blatant disregard for human life, international law and the diplomatic efforts of President Trump, » President Emmanuel Macron in France he said on social networks.
There was no immediate comment from the Russian army over the Sumy attack, only 18 kilometers from the Russian border. Before the war, the city was the home of about 250,000 people. It has since become a refuge for Ukrainian civilians fleeing villages and villages along the Russian border to escape the bombing and possible aggression.
Sumy and its surrounding region have been regularly under Russian attack last year, especially since Ukraine used the area as a base for a cross -border offensive in the Russian neighboring Kursk region. Moscow forces expelled most of the Ukrainian troops in Kursk this yearBut Kyiv has it warned that Russia is preparing Push -ye in the summary region And open a new front to the war.
Valeria Voronenko, a 24 -year -old resident, said that the locals had become accustomed to attacks, but that Sunday’s assault was « the worst tragedy » that the city had experienced for three years of war. « The whole atmosphere: people call, crying, » he said about the scene after the attack. « It was the chaos. »
Serhii Skliarenko, a 44 -year -old volunteer who tended to the injuries after the attack, said that the strikes made the Trump administration’s efforts to be questioned to achieve a cessation of fire.
« The type of peace that Trump speaks and that the international community speaks; it is unthinkable, » he said. « They should be brought here, to see what kind of » peace « this dirt, this evil, drives. »
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