DOZENS have been killed and wounded by a bloody Russian ballistic missile attack on the city centre of Sumy, north-east Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky branded Putin a “b***ard” for the timing of the attack, which came on the holy Palm Sunday.
AFPFire fighters struggled to battle the blaze[/caption]
ReutersAt least 20 people are known to have died in the devastating attack[/caption]
AFPA row of cars stand completely burnt out in the city centre[/caption]
Zelensky said: “A terrible Russian ballistic missile strike on Sumy… According to preliminary data, there are dozens of dead and wounded civilians.
“And this is on a day when people go to church: Palm Sunday […] Only b***ards can do this.”
Sumy’s acting mayor Artem Kobzar confirmed over 20 people were dead following the missile strike.
At least five of the victims are thought to be children.
Relatives of the dead were seen weeping over the bodies of their loved ones lying in the street.
Preliminary casualties were put at 21 dead and 34 injured.
Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff, said: “The Russians hit the city of Sumy with missiles, killing civilians.”
Andriy Kovalenko, a disinformation security official, noted the strike’s timing after the visit of US envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow.
He said: “Russia is building all this so-called diplomacy […] around strikes on civilians.”
Witkoff held talks with Putin on Friday in St. Petersburg about the peace process, after Trump warned Russia to “get moving”.
Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, said: “Sumy. Day off. A major religious holiday for Ukrainians is Palm Sunday.
“The day when Ukrainian families go to churches, walk around the city with their children.
“And it was on this day that Russia launched another missile strike on a peaceful city.”
Anatoliy Fedoruk, the mayor of Bucha – destroyed earlier in the war by Putin’s forces – said: “A racist missile hit right in the heart of Sumy. Dozens killed.
“The city centre was turned into a bloody landscape. Continuous terror. They don’t stop.
“Another day when a terrorist state exists on the map. Each such strike is yet another proof: Russia is incapable of existing alongside the civilised world.
“Only pain, destruction, and death — that’s its essence.”
The attack on the religious holiday come a week on from Russian rocket strikes on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv – which Zelensky said breached the naval ceasefire.
The Ukrainian president said the missiles were fired from Russian ships stationed in the Black Sea last Sunday after warning that Moscow was stepping up its aerial attacks.
APBuildings were reduced to rubble by the blasts[/caption]
East2WestCars burned in the city centre following the strike[/caption]
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