Ukrainian emergency employees search by means of the rubble on the website of a missile assault in Sumy, northeastern Ukraine, on April 14, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Agence France-Presse
SUMY, Ukraine — Residents of the Ukrainian metropolis of Sumy on Monday grieved the victims of one of many deadliest assaults of the struggle as Russia denied focusing on civilians and US President Donald Trump resumed his onslaught in opposition to Ukraine’s chief.
A day after two missiles killed at the very least 35 individuals, individuals laid flowers beside a destroyed college constructing as employees dug by means of the rubble.
“We used to stroll right here on a regular basis,” mentioned Igor Koloshchuk, stood by the makeshift memorial along with his spouse Tetyana.
READ: Ukraine: Russian strike on Palm Sunday on metropolis middle of Sumy kills 34
“We got here to pay our respects,” Tetyana mentioned, including she felt “shock, incomprehension, and possibly hatred.”
Authorities mentioned the useless included two boys aged 11 and 17. However Russia mentioned its missiles hit a gathering of military commanders, accusing Ukraine of utilizing civilians as a “human protect”.
Russia’s assault drew worldwide condemnation.
The US president — who’s pushing for a ceasefire — referred to as it a “horrible factor” and a “mistake” by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, but in addition focused Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump — who had a blazing White Home row with Zelensky six weeks in the past — mentioned the Ukrainian chief shared the blame for “tens of millions of individuals useless” with Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and former US president Joe Biden.
READ: World leaders slam lethal Russian strike on Ukraine
“Let’s say Putin primary, however let’s say Biden, who had no concept what the hell he was doing, quantity two, and Zelensky,” Trump mentioned throughout a gathering with El Salvador’s president.
Zelensky was “all the time seeking to buy missiles”, Trump mentioned.
“Once you begin a struggle, you bought to know which you can win the struggle,” Trump mentioned. “You don’t begin a struggle in opposition to any person that’s 20 occasions your measurement, after which hope that individuals offer you some missiles.”
Russia rejects blame
Commenting on the Sumy strike for the primary time, Russia’s defence ministry mentioned its military launched two ballistic Iskander-M missiles at “the place of a gathering of command workers”, claiming to have killed 60 Ukrainian troopers.
The Kremlin denied focusing on civilians or making any type of “mistake”.
“Our military hits solely navy and military-related targets,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov instructed reporters.
The defence ministry appeared to concede there have been civilian casualties, however blamed Ukraine.
“The Kyiv regime continues to make use of the Ukrainian inhabitants as a human protect, inserting navy amenities and holding occasions with the participation of troopers within the centre of a densely populated metropolis,” the ministry mentioned.
Russia has made related accusations through the struggle.
Conservative impartial estimates say nevertheless that hundreds of civilians have died as Russian missiles have hit Ukrainian residence blocks, hospitals, faculties, prepare stations and different civilian areas.
“Solely utterly deranged scum can do one thing like this,” Zelensky mentioned of the Sumy strikes Sunday.
‘Mountains of corpses’
Sumy’s residents recalled the horror of the strikes.
“It was chaos. There have been mountains of corpses,” recalled Artem Selianyn, a fight medic, who ran from his dwelling to assist, regardless of his household’s flat being severely broken within the assault.
The 47-year-old mentioned one of many first victims he handled was a younger girl working at a cell espresso store who was bleeding from an artery after her leg was hit by shrapnel.
“My footwear had been coated in blood. I haven’t cleaned them but, it’s the blood of the wounded,” he mentioned.
Kyiv mentioned the assaults confirmed that Russia had no intention of halting its invasion, after Putin final month rejected a US name for a ceasefire.
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff held talks with Putin in Saint Petersburg on Friday that the Kremlin on Monday referred to as “extraordinarily useful and really efficient”.
Ukraine’s European allies strongly condemned the Russian assault nevertheless.
France’s overseas ministry mentioned the assault — together with one other this month that killed 9 kids and 9 adults in Kryvyi Rig — constituted “struggle crimes”.
Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz additionally described the assault as “a critical struggle crime”.
‘Additional escalation’
The Kremlin criticised Merz for saying he was open to supplying Ukraine with Taurus missiles.
“He’s agitating on the aspect of toughening his place and in favour of assorted steps that may — and can — inevitably result in an additional escalation of the Ukraine scenario,” Peskov mentioned.
Whereas Trump once more criticised Zelensky, a senior official in Kyiv instructed AFP that Ukraine-US talks in Washington final week on a proposed mineral deal had gone “constructively”.
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Separate Russian strikes Monday on the northeastern area of Kharkiv killed 4 aged residents, officers mentioned. Russia mentioned Ukrainian drone strikes on border villages within the Kursk area killed three individuals.
