Russia: Deadly Sumy strike hit army meeting

Russia said yesterday that its missiles hit a meeting of Ukrainian army commanders in Sumy, accusing Ukraine of using civilians as a “human shield” while Kyiv said the attack Sunday killed at least 35 people in one of the deadliest strikes of the entire war.
Russia’s attack drew condemnation and accusations of “war crimes” from leaders around the world, though US President Donald Trump — who is pushing for a ceasefire — called it a “horrible thing” and suggested Russia had “made a mistake”.
Commenting on the strike for the first time after more than 24 hours, Russia’s defence ministry said its army launched two ballistic Iskander-M missiles at “the place of a meeting of command staff”, claiming that it had killed 60 Ukrainian soldiers.
The Kremlin denied that its army had targeted civilians or that there had been any kind of “mistake”.
“Our army hits only military and military-related targets,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about the strike and Trump’s comments.
A day after the strike, workers were digging in the late afternoon sun through the rubble of a destroyed university building, next to which people had come to lay flowers.
“We used to walk here all the time,” said 32-year-old Igor Koloshchuk, who came to the makeshift memorial with his wife Tetyana.
“We came to pay our respects,” she said, adding she felt “shock, incomprehension, and probably hatred.”
Sumy residents have already got used to explosions from the near-daily Russian attacks, said the 31-year-old kindergarten teacher.
“But when such tragedies happen, it’s impossible to get used to it.”
Russia’s defence ministry appeared to concede there were civilian casualties, but placed the blame on Ukraine.
“The Kyiv regime continues to use the Ukrainian population as a human shield, placing military facilities and holding events with the participation of soldiers in the centre of a densely populated city,” the ministry said.
Russia has made similar accusations since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
There is widespread evidence that Russia’s missiles and drones have slammed into apartment blocks, hospitals, schools, train stations and other civilian areas in the three-year war.
Even conservative independent estimates say thousands of civilians, including hundreds of children, have been killed in the conflict.
“Only completely deranged scum can do something like this,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday after the strikes on Sumy.
Ukrainian prosecutors said the attack killed 35 people, including two boys aged 11 and 17, and injured 117 people.
One witness told AFP she heard the two explosions.
“A lot of people were very badly injured. A lot of corpses,” she said, struggling to speak.