At least 34 people were killed and some 117 others were injured as two Russian ballistic missiles struck the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy, in what authorities say is the second large-scale attack to claim civilian lives in the space of a week.
The missiles struck on Sunday as Christian faithful gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday – the Sunday before Easter, in which Jesus Christ is believed to have entered Jerusalem.
The attacks were carried out in the morning, with officials saying the first of the missiles struck around 10:15 am local time (9:15 am CEST). Images from the site showed lines of black body bags on the roadside, while more bodies were seen wrapped in foil blankets among the debris.
Video footage also showed fire crews fighting to extinguish burning cars among the rubble from damaged buildings.
The dead included two children, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said in a statement. A further 15 children were also injured, to varying degrees. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said among those children was a toddler – a newborn girl born in 2025 – as he detailed the horrific attack.
“The first one struck a building - one of the university buildings. The second one exploded virtually over the street. 117 people were injured, including children, among them a girl born in 2025," said Zelenskyy.
The Ukrainian leader slammed Russia for what he called a heinous attack targeting civilians.
"The strike hit the city centre on Palm Sunday. Only filthy scum can act like this."
Zelenskyy says the attack comes just a few days after the one-month mark of Russia’s refusal of a US-proposed 30-day unconditional ceasefire, agreed by Ukraine on 11 March. He’s routinely accused Moscow of stalling in search of more concessions, questioning their seriousness about peace.
“They are not afraid. And that’s precisely why (they resort to) ballistic missiles. That’s why every night there are around a hundred strike drones, most of them Shaheds (strike drones) which target ordinary Ukrainian cities,” added Zelenskyy.
He also called for a global response to the attack, saying "only pressure, only decisive action' would stop attacks like Sunday's strike from undermining efforts to bring an end to the war.
The attack on Sumy followed a deadly 4 April missile strike on Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih that killed some 20 people, including nine children.
It also came a day after Russia and Ukraine’s 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 Moscow's more than three-year war.
