‘This is wrong’: Russian missiles hit Palm Sunday celebrations

Sumy, Ukraine: Russian missiles struck the heart of the Ukrainian city of Sumy as people gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday, killing at least 34 people, officials said, in the second large-scale attack to claim civilian lives in just over a week.

The two ballistic missiles hit around 10.15am, officials said. Images from the scene showed lines of black body bags on the side of the road, while more bodies were seen wrapped in foil blankets among the debris. Video footage also showed fire crews fighting to extinguish the shells of burnt-out cars among the rubble from damaged buildings.

Firefighters put out the fire following Russia’s missile attack in Sumy, Ukraine.Credit: Ukraine Emergency services via AP

The dead included two children, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said in a statement. A further 117 people were wounded, including 15 children, it said.

“Only filthy scum can act like this – taking the lives of ordinary people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. In a statement on social media, he said the first strike hit buildings belonging to a city university, while the second exploded above street level.

The head of Zelensky’s office, Andriy Yermak, said the strike also used cluster munitions in an attempt to kill as many people as possible. The Associated Press was unable to verify the claim.

The attack on Sumy followed a deadly April 4 missile strike on Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih that killed some 20 people, including nine children.

A rescue worker rests near a Sumy University building destroyed by a Russian strike.Credit: AP

Zelensky called for a global response to the attack. “Talks have never stopped ballistic missiles and aerial bombs. What’s needed is an attitude towards Russia that a terrorist deserves,” he said.

Other world leaders also condemned the attack, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying that it undermined Washington-led peace talks between the two sides.

“Everyone knows: this war was initiated by Russia alone. And today, it is clear that Russia alone chooses to continue it – with blatant disregard for human lives, international law and the diplomatic efforts” of US President Donald Trump, he wrote in a statement.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, two women, ages 62 and 68, and a 48-year-old man were killed in Russian attacks on the Kherson region, local Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. Another person was killed during Russian shelling of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Governor Vadym Filashkin said.

Ukrainian servicemen carry a dead body from a trolleybus after a Russian missile strike on Sumy on Palm Sunday.Credit: AP

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said a Russian strike hit one of the city’s kindergartens, shattering windows and damaging the building’s facade. No casualties were reported.

Spring offensive fears despite peace talks

The strikes came a day after Russia and Ukraine’s senior diplomats accused each other of violating a tentative US-brokered deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure, underscoring the challenges of negotiating an end to the three-year war.

The two countries’ foreign ministers spoke at separate events at the annual Antalya Diplomacy Forum a day after US envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss peace prospects.

“The Ukrainians have been attacking us from the very beginning, every passing day, maybe with two or three exceptions,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, adding that Moscow would provide the US, Turkey and international bodies with a list of Kyiv’s attacks during the past three weeks.

His Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha, contested that claim, saying at the weekend that Russia had launched almost 70 missiles, more than 2200 exploding drones and more than 6000 guided aerial bombs at Ukraine, “mostly at civilians” since agreeing to the limited pause on strikes.

Russian forces hold the advantage in the war, and Kyiv has warned that Moscow is planning a fresh northern spring offensive to ramp up pressure on its foe and improve its negotiating position.

Ukraine has endorsed a broader US ceasefire proposal, but Russia has in effect blocked it by imposing far-reaching conditions. European governments have accused Putin of dragging his feet.

Retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, said the Sumy attack crossed “any line of decency” and that the White House remained committed to ending the conflict.

“There are scores of civilian dead and wounded. As a former military leader, I understand targeting, and this is wrong,” he said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the attack “horrifying” and said it offered “a tragic reminder” of why the administration was trying to end the war in favour of “a just and durable peace”.

Strikes also on Gaza

Meanwhile, a wave of Israeli strikes across Gaza on Palm Sunday hit a hospital and other sites, killing at least 21 people, including children, as Israel vowed to expand its security presence in the small coastal strip.

The predawn strike on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City was the latest of several attacks on northern Gaza’s last major hospital providing critical healthcare.

Hospital director Dr Fadel Naim said the emergency room, pharmacy and surrounding buildings were severely damaged, affecting over 100 patients and dozens of staff.

One patient, a girl, died during the evacuation following an Israeli warning because staff were unable to provide urgent care, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. Israel said it struck a Hamas command and control centre at the hospital, without providing evidence. Hamas denied the allegations.

Palestinian Christians attend a Palm Sunday mass at the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City on Palm Sunday.Credit: AP

Al-Ahli Hospital is run by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which condemned the attack, saying in a statement it happened on “Palm Sunday, the start of the Holy Week, the most sacred week of the Christian year”.

Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, and worshippers in Gaza City marked it in a church whose gilded trim and intact walls were a contrast to the widespread debris elsewhere.

AP