Ukrainian officials on Sunday said more than 20 people were killed after a Russian missile strike on the northeastern city of Sumy, which has come under intense attack from Moscow’s forces in recent weeks.
Sumy lies close to the Russian border and has been under increasing pressure since Moscow pushed back much of Ukraine’s troops from its Kursk region across the border.
«Many dead today as a result of a missile strike,» the acting mayor of Sumy, Artyom Kobzar, said on social media, adding that «the enemy has struck civilians again.”
He later placed the preliminary death toll at “more than 20” civilians.
Unverified images on social media showed burnt-out cars and plumes of smoke rising into the air.
«A terrible Russian ballistic missile strike on Sumy,» Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media, placing the toll at «dozens of dead and wounded civilians.»
«And this is on a day when people go to church: Palm Sunday… Only bastards can do this,» Zelensky wrote.
Sumy lies some 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the border.
Kyiv has warned for weeks that Moscow could mount an offensive on Sumy.
Last month Russia claimed the capture of a village in the Sumy region for the first time since the early days of its 2022 invasion.