U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink, finishing up her last days on the job after resigning over policy differences with President Donald Trump, said on Sunday the Russians bombed the Ukrainian city of Sumy with cluster munitions, killing at least 34 people and injuring 117 more.
Two of the dead and 15 of the injured were reportedly children.
Kryvyi Rih is a city that was attacked by Russian missiles on April 4, killing 20 people, 9 of them children. The Ukrainian government characterized the strike as a “terrorist attack,” while President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was evidence that “Russia does not want a ceasefire.”
“Every Russian promise ends with missiles or drones, bombs or artillery. Diplomacy means nothing to them,” Zelensky said on April 4.
As with Kryvyi Rih, the Palm Sunday attack on Sumy involved Russian ballistic missiles with warheads that dispersed small cluster bomblets over a wide target area. The Ukrainian government pointed out that cluster munitions are designed to “inflict maximum damage on people.”
“Russia wants exactly this kind of terror and is dragging out this war. Without pressure on the aggressor, peace is impossible. Talking has never stopped ballistic missiles and bombs. We need to treat Russia as a terrorist deserves,” Zelensky said on Sunday.
Ambassador Brink, who stepped down on Friday due to tension with Trump’s policy on the war in Ukraine, was not the only U.S. official to criticize Russia’s actions. Trump’s envoy to Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, said the strike “crosses any line of decency.”
“There are scores of civilian dead and wounded. As a former military leader, I understand targeting and this is wrong. It is why President Trump is working hard to end this war,” Kellogg said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio denounced the attack as “horrifying” on Sunday and extended condolences to the victims.
President Trump himself said Russia “made a mistake” by launching what he described as a “horrible” attack. He was also critical of Zelensky for not acting more expeditiously to arrange a ceasefire.
The Kremlin responded to international outrage over the Sumy attack by insisting Russia “strikes exclusively at military and near-military targets.”
Some Ukrainian opposition politicians criticized their government for giving the Russians an excuse to bomb Sumy by holding a military awards ceremony in Sumy on Sunday. Local mayor Artem Semenikhin said the awards ceremony allowed Moscow to justify its “genocidal attack” as a strike against a “military gathering.”
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