Russian missiles struck the heart of the Ukrainian city of Sumy as people gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday, killing at least 34 people, officials said, in the second large-scale attack to claim civilian lives in just over a week.
The two ballistic missiles hit around 10:15 a.m., officials said. Images from the scene showed lines of black body bags on the side of the road, while more bodies were seen wrapped in foil blankets among the debris. Video footage also showed fire crews fighting to extinguish the shells of burned-out cars among the rubble from damaged buildings.
The dead included two children, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said in a statement. A further 117 people were wounded, including 15 children, it said.
“Only filthy scum can act like this — taking the lives of ordinary people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. In a statement on social media, he said the first strike hit buildings belonging to a city university, while the second exploded above street level.
The head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andriy Yermak, said cluster munitions were used to kill as many people as possible. The Associated Press was unable to verify that claim.
The attack on Sumy followed a deadly April 4 missile strike on Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih that killed some 20 people, including nine children.
Once again, the traditional news media reporting I’ve been unintentionally exposed to on this strike mentioned nothing about the military personnel - but that level of propaganda is normal in the west. I’ve lost count of the number of times the BBC reports a strike on a hotel or a cafe only for their own videos to show injured military personnel and foreign mercenaries in the rubble.
This strike however seems uncharacteristic in it’s callousness, and seems unusually mean spirited from the Russians. Civilian casualties from the strikes have been pretty minimal so far in the war, other than the occasional Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile intercepting the side of an apartment.
Perhaps the terror drone raids the Ukrainians having been sending deep into Russia to target random civilian buildings have rekalibrated their tolerance for collateral.
Idk if that’s the case here, but in the past Ukrainian missiles struck friendly targets several times and everything was immediately reported as Russian strike.
EDIT: seems it’s not the case here, apparently it was military awards ceremony which was widely advertised and open to public. Very fucking smart thing to do when opponent have air domination. Unless they were trying to achieve this exact effect.
People forget that the reason these conventions of war exist isn’t because they’re convenient to The Bad Guys™, it’s because if you keep doing that shit enough times you’re signaling everyone to do it to you.
Like nukes, nobody should use them ever. Because once you do, why wouldn’t you expect it in return.