A Russian rocket attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy, in which 34 people were killed – including two children – and injured 117 others, was strongly convicted by the Western allies of Kyiv.
Two ballistic missiles met the city center halfway through the morning on Sunday, exploded near the state university and the congress center, through which bloody bodies spread on the street.
The American State Secretary Marco Rubio called the attack “horrible”, while Friedrich Merz, the Chancellor of Germany, accused Russia of committing a war crime.
There was no immediate official comments on the attack from Russia, whose troops across the nearby border would prepare for a great offensive.
The attack comes as the US, the strongest military ally of Ukraine, has put an end to the war – now in the fourth year – through negotiations under President Donald Trump.
The leader of Ukraine Volodymyr Zensky has encouraged Trump himself to visit Ukraine and see the destruction that is brought by the invasion of Russia.
“Please, for every form of decisions, any form of negotiations, come to people, citizens, warriors, hospitals, churches, destroyed or death,” he said on Sunday in an interview for the 60 minutes of CBS.
Rubio, the American Foreign Minister, said that the attack was a “tragic memory” why the Trump administration “did so much time and effort to end this war,” said the attack that the attack was a “tragic memory”.
Previously used Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, retired LT-Gen Keith Kellogg, a stronger language and said that the attack had exceeded “every line of decency”.
Merz, which is expected to be taken over as the new Chancellor of Germany next month, said the German public broadcaster Ard that the attack on Sumy was a “serious war crime”.
“It was a perfidious act … and it is a serious war crime, intentional and intended,” said the conservative politician.
The departing Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, meanwhile said that the attack showed “exactly what Russia’s supposed to be willing for peace [was] worth”.
French President Emmanuel Macron accused Russia of “flagrant contempt for human lives, international law and the diplomatic efforts of President Trump”.
“Strong measures are needed to impose a ceasefire on Russia,” he said. “France is tirelessly working on this goal, in addition to its partners.”
Descriptively the attack as “barbaric”, chairman of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen added: “Russia was and remains the aggressor, in a flagrant violation of international law.
“Strong measures are urgently needed to maintain a ceasefire. Europe will continue to reach partners and maintain strong pressure on Russia until the bloodshed and a just and permanent peace is reached on the conditions of Ukraine.”
The British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also gave an opinion and said that he was “shocked about Russia’s horrible attacks on Burgers in Sumy”.
A spokesperson for the UN Secretary General António Guterres said that he was “deeply alerted and shocked” to learn from the rocket attack.
“Attacks on citizens and civilian objects are prohibited according to international humanitarian law, and that such attacks, wherever they happen, should end,” he added.
Guterres emphasized the UN support for “meaningful efforts for a just, sustainable and extensive peace that completely maintains the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine”.
Sunday’s double rocket attack was the deadliest attack on citizens in Ukraine this year.
Another Russian rocket attack, earlier this month on April 4, killed 20 people and injured 61 in the city of Kryvyi Rih.
On that occasion, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that it had focused on a meeting of “Unit Commanders and Western Instructors” in a restaurant. No evidence was provided.
It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people – the vast majority of soldiers – have been killed or injured on all sides since Russia launched a full invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
The UN estimates that Almost seven million Ukrainians are currently living as refugees.
The conflict goes back to 2014 more than a decade, when the pro-Russian president of Ukraine was overthrown. Russia then annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and supported insurgents in bloody battles in Eastern Ukraine.
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