A Russian bombing killed This Sunday a More than 30 peopleamong them two children, and caused more than 100 injured in the center of Sumi, a city in the northeast of Ukraine, which raised strong convictions of United States and the European Union.
The attack, perpetrated with ballistic missiles in full influx for the Palm Sundayhe has been the deadliest for months in Ukraine, invaded by Russia in February 2022.
It also occurred two days after the visit of an American emissary to Russia. Both countries resumed their contacts from the Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
“Russia hit the city center with ballistic missiles. Just when there were many people on the street,” said Ukrainian rescuers on social networks.
The last balance offered at 6:00 p.m. (15h00 GMT) by the Ukrainian emergency service realized 34 dead, including two children. Another 117 people were injured, including 15 minors.
Sumi’s local authorities, bordering Russia, published images of bodies lying on the streets and people running to take refuge from the bombings.
They also spread photos of vehicles in flames and injured civilians, and decreed three days of mourning.
The attack took place “a day when people go to church: Domingo de Ramos (…). Only the Malnacids can do this,” said Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski.
“Without a really strong pressurewithout adequate support to Ukraine, Russia will continue to carry out this war, “he said in a message on Telegram, in which he accused his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, of having” ignored the US proposal of a high total and unconditional fire. “
“Blood bath”
Subsequently, in an interview with CBS television, Zelenski urged Trump to visit Ukraine “before any type of negotiation” to understand “what he did” Putin with his war.
Bombing is “a horrible example of the intensification of Russia’s attacks while Ukraine accepted a truce,” denounced the head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas.
For its part, the UN secretary of the UN, Antonio Guterres, He was “deeply alarmed and shocked” by the Russian attack.
The British Prime Minister, Labor Keir Starmer, wrote in X that “this last deadly attack is a brutal reminder of the continuous blood bath perpetrated by Putin.”
Other European leaders reacted, such as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who in turn asked for “strong measures” to impose a truce on Moscow.
“It was a perfidious act (…) and it is a serious war crime,” said the future head of the German government, Friedrich Merz.
It was an “unacceptable” attack that “exceeds the limits of decency,” Kellogg, the American envoy for Ukraine, denounced.
He Head of the United States diplomacy, Marco Rubio, He described the “horrible” bombardment and expressed their condolences to the victims.
The attack occurred two days after the meeting in St. Petersburg between the American emissary Steve Witkoff and Putin.
Washington proposed a fire in March, but Putin was not convinced and the 30 -day truce proposal, accepted by kyiv, did not materialize.
kyiv and Western powers suspect that Russia, whose army is more numerous and is better equipped in the front, deliberately prolongs negotiations.
Growing pressure on sumi
Russia has attacked Ukraine without rest in recent weeks despite Trump’s pressure to end the conflict.
A Russian bombing left 18 dead At the beginning of April in Krivói Rog, in the center of Ukraine. Nine children died that day in the attack, which shocked the entire country.
Sumi is further north, near the border, and suffers increasing pressure since Moscow went back to a large part of the Ukrainian troops in the neighboring Russian region of Kursk.
The city, until now, has avoided the intensity of the fighting that have developed further south, in the Donetsk region. But kyiv has noticed for weeks that Moscow could launch an offensive there.
Russia claimed on Thursday the taking of a town in the homonymous region, an unusual advance in this area of the northeast of Ukraine where their troops had to retire in the spring of 2022.
He Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander, Oleksandr Sirskisaid Wednesday that the Russians had begun “a few days ago” offensive in the regions of Sumi and Járkov, also in the Northeast.
