Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

Two Russian ballistic missiles slammed into the heart of the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday, killing 32 people and wounding more than 80 in the deadliest strike on Ukraine this year, the Kyiv government said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded a tough international response against Moscow over the attack, which came with US President Donald Trump‘s push to rapidly end the war struggling to make a breakthrough.

Dead bodies were strewn on the ground in the middle of a city street near a destroyed bus and burnt-out cars in a video posted by Zelensky on social media.

“Only scoundrels can act like this. Taking the lives of ordinary people,” he said, noting that the attack had come on Palm Sunday when some people were going to church.

Russian authorities did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

It followed a missile strike in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s hometown and far from the ground war’s front lines in the east and south, earlier this month that killed 20 people, including nine children.

Sumy, with a population of around a quarter of a million and located just over 25 km (15 miles) from the Russian border, became a garrison city when Kyiv’s forces launched an incursion into Russia last August that has since been largely repelled.

The people who were caught in Sunday’s strike were out on the street or inside cars, public transport and buildings when the missiles hit, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.

“Deliberate destruction of civilians on an important church feast day,” he wrote.

Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, said the missiles contained cluster munitions. “The Russians are doing this to kill as many civilians as possible,” he said.

Maryana Bezuhla, an outspoken Ukrainian lawmaker known for her sharp public criticism of military commanders, suggested on the Telegram app that the attack had taken place due to information about a gathering of soldiers leaking out.

Reuters was not able to verify that information.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and currently holds nearly 20% of the neighboring country’s territory in the east and south. Russian forces have been slowly advancing in the east.

‘SO-CALLED DIPLOMACY’

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv was “sharing detailed information about this war crime with all of our partners and international institutions.”

The International Criminal Court in The Hague, which Ukraine officially joined this year, is conducting investigations into high-profile cases of alleged war crimes in the conflict.

Andriy Kovalenko, a security official who runs Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, noted that the strike came after a visit to Russia by US envoy Steve Witkoff for talks with top officials including President Vladimir Putin.

“Russia is building all this so-called diplomacy … around strikes on civilians,” he wrote on Telegram.

Under Trump‘s administration, US officials have held separate rounds of talks with Kremlin and Kyiv officials to try to move towards a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine.

Ukraine and Russia agreed to pause strikes on each other’s energy facilities last month, but both sides have repeatedly accused each other of breaking the moratorium.

Witkoff, Trump‘s special envoy, held talks with Putin on Friday in St. Petersburg on the search for a Ukraine peace deal. Trump told Russia to “get moving.”

In the aftermath of Sunday’s Sumy strike, Zelensky called on the United States and Europe to respond robustly to what he described as Russian terrorism.

“Russia wants exactly this kind of terror and is dragging out this war. Without pressure on the aggressor, peace is impossible. Talks have never stopped ballistic missiles and aerial bombs,” he wrote.

Russia’s defense ministry accused Ukraine on Saturday of having carried out five attacks on Russian energy infrastructure over the previous day in what it called a violation of the US-brokered moratorium on such strikes.

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Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on Jan. 19, 2025, as three Israeli hostages were set to be released from Hamas captivity as part of a Gaza ceasefire deal. Photo: Taken by author

i24 News – Families of Gaza hostages and their supporters held a public Passover Seder at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on Saturday night, amid reports of stalemate and foot dragging in the negotiations on the release of the remaining 59 hostages, over 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

Ahead of the Tel Aviv event, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged Israelis to turn out to Hostages Square outside the Tel Aviv Museum.

“Bring your holiday meal with you, bring a mat or chair, come with the kids, come with friends — let’s be together,” the statement read.

“How can we sit at the Seder table and tell the story of our journey from slavery to freedom while 59 of our brothers and sisters are still held captive by Hamas?” the Forum asked.

Karina Ariev, an IDF spotter who was released in January as part of the first phase of a ceasefire-hostage deal, urged Israelis celebrating the Seder to “leave an empty chair for the hostages, and do not forget them.”

“Although I am here, my heart is still there. There are still 59 hostages waiting for their freedom holiday, waiting to be brought home,” she added. “I think about them, and I think about us because until they return, none of us can truly be free.”

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US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria

i24 News – Saturday’s meeting between US special presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqhchi to hash out the impasse on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program yielded “very positive and constructive” discussions, the White House said on Saturday.

“Special Envoy Witkoff underscored to Dr. Araqhchi that he had instructions from President Trump to resolve our two nations’ differences through dialogue and diplomacy, if that is possible,” the White House said in a statement.

“These issues are very complicated, and Special Envoy Witkoff’s direct communication today was a step forward in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome.”

The two sides will meet again next Saturday, it confirmed.

Speaking to Iranian state media, Araghchi described the meeting as constructive.

“Neither we nor the other side are interested in fruitless negotiations – so-called ‘talks for the sake of talks,’ wasting time, or drawn-out, exhausting negotiations,” he said. “Both sides, including the Americans, have said that their goal is also to reach an agreement in the shortest possible time. However, that will certainly not be an easy task.”

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