Two Russian ballistic missiles slammed into the heart of the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday, killing 34 people and wounding 117 in the deadliest strike on Ukraine this year, officials said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded a tough international response against Moscow over the attack, which came with US President Donald Trump's push to rapidly end the war struggling to make a breakthrough.
Dead bodies were strewn on the ground in the middle of a city street near a destroyed bus and burnt-out cars in a video posted by Zelenskyy on social media.
A man cries at the bus that was hit by a Russian missile in Sumy, Ukraine on Sunday. Source: AP / Volodymyr Hordiienko
"You know, the people who are fighting against us always say that they are Orthodox (Christian) believers, that they believe in God, but we have experienced first-hand terrorism today. I have no words," said 27-year old PhD student Yevhen, a local resident who declined to give his surname.
The leaders of Britain, Germany and Italy condemned the attack.
"These attacks show just what Russia's supposed readiness for peace is worth," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on social media.
Trump urged to visit Ukraine
US secretary of state Marco Rubio expressed condolences for the victims and said in a statement the attack was a: "tragic reminder of why President Trump and his Administration are putting so much time and effort into trying to end this war."
Zelenskyy, in an interview with CBS News' 60 Minutes set to air on Sunday, urged Trump to visit Ukraine.
"Please come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children, destroyed or dead," Zelenskyy said in a video clip the program posted on social media.
Under Trump's administration, US officials have held separate rounds of talks with Kremlin and Kyiv officials to try to move toward a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine.
Russian authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Russia denies targeting civilians but thousands have been killed and injured in its invasion of Ukraine.
It followed a missile strike in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskiy's hometown and far from the ground war's front lines in the east and south, earlier this month that killed 20 people, including nine children.
Sumy, with a population of around a quarter of a million and located just over 25km from the Russian border, became a garrison city when Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into Russia in August that has since been largely repelled.
'Deliberate destruction of civilians'
Sumy's acting mayor, Artem Kobzar, announced three days of mourning for the victims starting from Monday.
The people who were caught in Sunday's strike were out on the street or inside cars, public transport and buildings when the missiles hit, interior minister Ihor Klymenko said.
"Deliberate destruction of civilians on an important church feast day," he wrote.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and currently holds nearly 20 per cent of the neighbouring country's territory in the east and south. Russian forces have been slowly advancing in the east.
'So-called diplomacy'
Ukraine's foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said his country was "sharing detailed information about this war crime with all of our partners and international institutions."
The International Criminal Court in The Hague, which Ukraine officially joined this year, is conducting investigations into high-profile cases of alleged war crimes in the conflict.
Andriy Kovalenko, a security official who runs Ukraine's Centre for Countering Disinformation, noted that the strike came after a visit to Russia by US envoy Steve Witkoff for talks with top officials, including President Vladimir Putin.
"Russia is building all this so-called diplomacy ... around strikes on civilians," he wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine and Russia agreed to pause strikes on each other's energy facilities last month, but both sides have repeatedly accused each other of breaking the moratorium.
Witkoff, Trump's special envoy, held talks with Putin on Friday in St Petersburg on the search for a Ukraine peace deal. Trump told Russia to "get moving."
In the aftermath of Sunday's Sumy strike, Zelenskyy called on the United States and Europe to respond robustly to what he described as Russian terrorism.
"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.
Russia's defence ministry accused Ukraine on Saturday of having carried out five attacks on Russian energy infrastructure over the previous day in what it called a violation of the US-brokered moratorium on such strikes.
