By Svitlana Vlasova and Rosa Rahimi, CNN
Ukrainian law enforcement officers working at the site of a missile attack in Sumy, northeastern Ukraine, on April 13, 2025. Photo: AFP/OLEG VORONENKO
Russian missiles hit residents gathering for Sunday church services in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, killing at least 34 people in the deadliest attack of the conflict this year.
Two children were among the scores of people killed in the strikes on the city's centre, while 117 people were wounded, according to Ukraine's State Emergency Service.
Zelensky said the deadly strikes on Sumy were carried out by ballistic missiles and called for a "strong response from the world" to the attack, which comes amid US-led efforts to broker an end to the three-year war.
"Russia wants exactly this kind of terror and is dragging out this war," he said.
"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."
There has been international condemnation of the strikes: The Trump administration's special envoy to Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg said the attack "crosses any line of decency."
"As a former military leader, I understand targeting and this is wrong. It is why President (Donald) Trump is working hard to end this war," Kellogg said in a statement.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed those remarks, extending condolences to victims of the "horrifying Russian missile attack."
"This is a tragic reminder of why President Trump and his administration are putting so much time and effort into trying to end this war and achieve durable peace," he wrote on X.
The strikes hit the city centre on Palm Sunday as residents were attending church services on one of the busiest church-going days of the year, according to Ukraine's Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.
In his daily video address, Zelensky said that one Russian ballistic missile struck a university building, followed by another that "exploded right over (a) street."
Volodymyr Artyukh, head of the military administration in the region, said that "at that time, a lot of people were on the street."
"The enemy was hoping to inflict the greatest damage on people in the city of Sumy," Artyuk added.
The attack is also the worst single attack on Ukrainian civilians since 2023, when 51 people were killed in strikes on Kupiansk.
Footage from the scene shows destroyed buildings, blown-out windows and piles of rubble in the Sumy city centre. Bodies covered in emergency blankets can be seen on the ground.
Two men comforting each other as Ukrainian police psychologists provides assistance to local residents following a missile attack in Sumy. Photo: AFP/OLEG VORONENKO
Ukrainian officials said that preliminary information indicates cluster munitions were used in the attack. They contain multiple explosives that are released over a wide area - up to the size of several football fields - and are particularly dangerous to civilians when fired near populated areas.
"A missile with cluster munitions is something Russians do to kill as many civilians as possible," head of the Ukrainian president's office Andriy Yermak said, calling the strike a "deliberate targeting of civilians."
It was a two-pronged attack, with the second of two missiles likely filled with munitions that "exploded mid-air to inflict maximum damage on people" and caused large numbers of casualties, the head of the region's military administration said.
The second explosion happened about 200 meters from the site of the first, hitting an area with residential buildings, educational institutions and shops.
Sumy resident Iryna Pryykhodko told Reuters the "first explosion was strong, but the second one was even stronger."
"First, I saw shattered windows. Then, before the second strike, we took cover inside the residential building," she said.
"After the second strike, it was all covered with smoke and I could not see anything."
Among those killed was Olena Kohut, an artist with the Sumy National Theatre's orchestra, who died from her injuries in the attack.
Liudmyla Hordiienko, a deputy head in the region's state tax service, was also killed.
CNN has verified social media videos of the moment the strike hit Sumy.
A loud noise can be heard as large plumes of black smoke rise in the air.
Video shared by the region's military administration also registers a loud boom, showing the moment a Russian missile hit a building.
Emergency sirens can be heard as people run in panic, while others can be seen lying on the ground.
The face of one woman being helped is covered in blood in a different video shared by Zelensky.
Footage also shows body bags on the ground and a blown-out trolleybus that appears to have bodies inside, as emergency workers respond to the attack.
Artyukh, the head of the military administration, later said that most people on the trolleybus were killed.
The European Union's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called the incident a "horrific example of Russia intensifying attacks while Ukraine has accepted an unconditional ceasefire."
French President Emmanuel Macron also reacted, saying "strong measures" were needed to impose a ceasefire.
"It's been two months since Putin ignored America's proposal for a full and unconditional ceasefire," Zelensky said on Sunday, referring to Ukraine's acceptance of a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the United States in March, which Russia refused.
On Friday, top Trump administration official Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Putin for more than four hours.
President Donald Trump weighed in on the talks the following day.
"I think Ukraine-Russia might be going OK. And you're going to be finding out pretty soon," Trump said.
"You know, there's a point at which you have to either put up or shut up. We'll see what happens, but I think it's going fine."
The UN's Humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine Matthias Schmale condemned the strike on Sumy's city centre "in the strongest possible terms" and noted that international humanitarian law "strictly prohibits attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure."
Russia has increased air attacks and missile strikes on the Sumy region in recent weeks as it has pushed Ukrainian forces out of much of the adjoining Russian territory of Kursk.
Its forces have also occupied a few small settlements just inside the Sumy region.
Over the past 24 hours, other Russian attacks in Ukraine's Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions killed eight people and left at least 18 injured.
- CNN
