Russian strikes on Ukrainian city of Sumy kill 35, in deadliest attack this year

By Svitlana Vlasova and Rosa Rahimi, CNN

(CNN) — Russian ballistic missiles ripped through the busy center of Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy on Sunday, officials said, killing at least 35 people and striking terror into residents who were out enjoying Palm Sunday and attending morning church services.

It was the deadliest attack of the conflict this year. Two children were among the scores of people killed in the strikes on the city’s center, while 117 people were wounded, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes were carried out by ballistic missiles; one hit a university building and another “exploded right over (a) street,” he said.

Zelensky also called for a “strong response from the world” to the attack, which came two days after top Trump administration official Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, with video showing the two warmly shaking hands before a four hour meeting.

Ukrainian officials said that preliminary information indicates cluster munitions were used in the attack. The second of the two explosions was described as being likely filled with munitions that “exploded mid-air to inflict maximum damage on people,” according to the head of the region’s military administration.

“Russia wants exactly this kind of terror and is dragging out this war,” Zelensky said. “Without pressure on the aggressor, peace is impossible. Talking has never stopped ballistic missiles and bombs. We need to treat Russia as a terrorist deserves.”

When asked about the attack, Moscow maintained that the Russian military “strikes exclusively at military and near-military targets.”

“I can only repeat and remind you of the repeated statements of both our president (Vladimir Putin) and our army representatives,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

The attacks targeted Ukrainian commanding officers, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Telegram. It claimed that Kyiv “continues to use the Ukrainian population as a human shield” by “holding events with the participation of military personnel in the center of a densely populated city.”

International condemnation of the strikes from Ukraine’s allies was swift.

The Trump administration’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg questioned the targeting of the attack, which he said “crosses any line of decency.”

US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said he was told Russia “made a mistake.”

“I think it was terrible. And I was told they made a mistake. But I think it’s a horrible thing,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One late Sunday. When asked to elaborate on Monday, Trump said: “the mistake was letting the war happen.”

While he acknowledged that Putin started the war against Ukraine, he also continued to cast blame on Zelensky and former US President Joe Biden. “When you start a war you got to know that you can win the war,” Trump said referring to Zelensky. “You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles.”

Strikes on Palm Sunday

The strikes hit the city center on Palm Sunday as residents were attending church services on one of the busiest church-going days of the year, according to Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.

Natalia Pihul, a 52-year-old Sumy resident, told Reuters that her mother was hospitalized after suffering a head injury.

“(My mother) was in the kitchen cooking some food, lunch … A cupboard was right here, now it lies here on the floor. It fell and its doors cut her head,” she said as she walked around her mother’s damaged apartment.

The explosion blew out the unit’s window frames, scattering glass shards all across the kitchen and living room. Outside the building, footage from Reuters showed charred vehicles next to piles of rubble and personal belongings littering the street.

“Where is a military base here? Where is it? Please have a look. A woman lived here. Look at this! How is this even possible? It is unacceptable,” Pihul said.

A total of 20 buildings were damaged, including apartments, cafes, shops and the district court, Zelensky later wrote on X.

Of the more than 100 people wounded in the attack, he said 68 were in hospitals, eight of whom were in serious condition.

Volodymyr Artyukh, head of the military administration in the region, said that “at that time, a lot of people were on the street.”

“The enemy was hoping to inflict the greatest damage on people in the city of Sumy,” Artyuk added.

The attack is also the worst single attack on Ukrainian civilians since 2023, when 51 people were killed in strikes on Kupiansk.

Footage from the scene shows destroyed buildings, blown-out windows and piles of rubble in the Sumy city center. Bodies covered in emergency blankets can be seen on the ground.

Cluster munitions used, say Ukrainian officials

Cluster munitions contain multiple explosives that are released over a wide area – up to the size of several football fields – and are particularly dangerous to civilians when fired near populated areas.

“A missile with cluster munitions is something Russians do to kill as many civilians as possible,” said Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, calling the strike a “deliberate targeting of civilians.”

It was a two-pronged attack, with the second of two missiles likely filled with munitions that “exploded mid-air to inflict maximum damage on people” and caused large numbers of casualties, the head of the region’s military administration said. The second explosion happened about 200 meters from the site of the first, hitting an area with residential buildings, educational institutions and shops.

Sumy resident Iryna Pryykhodko told Reuters that the “first explosion was strong, but the second one was even stronger.”

“First, I saw shattered windows. Then, before the second strike, we took cover inside the residential building,” she said. “After the second strike, it was all covered with smoke and I could not see anything.”

Among those killed was Olena Kohut, an artist with the Sumy National Theatre’s orchestra, who died from her injuries in the attack. Liudmyla Hordiienko, a deputy head in the region’s state tax service, was also killed.

CNN has verified social media videos of the moment the strike hit Sumy. A loud noise can be heard as large plumes of black smoke rise in the air.

Video shared by the region’s military administration also registers a loud boom, showing the moment a Russian missile hit a building. Emergency sirens can be heard as people run in panic, while others can be seen lying on the ground.

The face of one woman being helped is covered in blood in a different video shared by Zelensky. Footage also shows body bags on the ground and a blown-out trolleybus that appears to have bodies inside, as emergency workers respond to the attack.

Artyukh, the head of the military administration, later said that most people on the trolleybus were killed.

Global condemnation

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, called the incident a “horrific example of Russia intensifying attacks while Ukraine has accepted an unconditional ceasefire.” French President Emmanuel Macron also reacted, saying “strong measures” are needed to impose a ceasefire.

“It’s been two months since Putin ignored America’s proposal for a full and unconditional ceasefire,” Zelensky said Sunday, referring to Ukraine’s acceptance of a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the United States in March, which Russia refused.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio extended condolences to victims of the “horrifying Russian missile attack.”

Speaking to CBS News’ “60 Minutes” in an interview published Sunday, Zelensky said he believes that “Russian narratives are prevailing in the US.”

“How is it possible to witness our losses and our suffering, to understand what the Russians are doing, and to still believe that they are not the aggressors, that they did not start this war?” he said.

“This speaks to the enormous influence of Russia’s information policy on America, on US politics, and US politicians.”

The UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine Matthias Schmale condemned the strike on Sumy’s city center “in the strongest possible terms” and noted that international humanitarian law “strictly prohibits attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure.”

Russia has increased air attacks and missile strikes on the Sumy region in recent weeks as it has pushed Ukrainian forces out of much of the adjoining Russian territory of Kursk. Its forces have also occupied a few small settlements just inside the Sumy region.

Over the past 24 hours, other Russian attacks in Ukraine’s Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions killed eight people and wounded at least 18.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Anna Chernova contributed reporting.