BRUSSELS (AP) — European officials condemned Monday Russia’s deadly missile attack on Ukraine’s Sumy that killed and wounded scores, accusing Moscow of committing war crimes and demonstrating disregard for Washington-led efforts to end the war.
Ukrainian officials said two ballistic missiles on Sunday morning hit the heart of Sumy, a city about 30 kilometers away from Ukraine’s border with Russia, as people gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday, killing at least 34 and wounding 117. It is the second large-scale attack to claim civilian lives in just over a week.
Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, whose country holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, said that the recent attacks are “Russia’s mocking answer” to Kyiv’s agreement to a ceasefire proposed by the U.S. administration over a month ago.
“I hope that President Trump, the U.S. administration, see that the leader of Russia is mocking their goodwill, and I hope the right decisions are taken,” Sikorski told reporters Monday in Luxembourg, where EU foreign ministers met.
Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen noted that the attack on Sumy came shortly after Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, was in Saint Petersburg for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It demonstrates that “Russia shows full disregard for the peace process, but also that Russia has zero regard for human life.”
Lithuania’s foreign minister Kestutis Budrys said the Russian strike used cluster munitions to target civilians in what he called “a war crime by definition.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the attack shows that Putin has no intention of agreeing to a ceasefire. “He must therefore be forced to do so, and that’s why I’m calling on the European Union to take the toughest sanctions against Russia to suffocate its economy and prevent it from fueling its war effort.”
The EU has imposed 16 rounds of sanctions on Russia and is working on a 17th package, but the measures are getting harder to agree on as they also impact European economies.
Germany’s chancellor-designate, Friedrich Merz, described the Sumy attack late Sunday as “a serious war crime.”
Merz said that, three days after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was in Moscow, Russia attacked a children’s hospital in Kyiv. “Evidently, he (Putin) interprets our readiness to speak to him not as a serious offer to make peace possible but as weakness,” he said in an appearance on ARD television.
Merz made clear that he stands by his past calls to send Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine, something that outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz refused to do. He said that the Ukrainian military needs to be able to “get ahead of the situation” and that any delivery of long-range missiles must be done in consultation with European partners.
Two children were killed and 15 others were wounded in the attack, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
“Only filthy scum can act like this — taking the lives of ordinary people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement on social media, adding that the first strike hit city university buildings, while the second exploded above street level.
The head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andriy Yermak, said cluster munitions were used to kill as many people as possible. The Associated Press was unable to verify that claim.
The attack on Sumy followed a deadly April 4 missile strike on Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih that killed some 20 people, including nine children.
Zelenskyy called for a global response to the attack. “Talks have never stopped ballistic missiles and aerial bombs. What’s needed is an attitude toward Russia that a terrorist deserves,” he said.
Asking about the attack, Trump said late Sunday evening that he was trying to get the war stopped. “I think it was terrible and I was told they made a mistake, but I think it’s a horrible thing. I think the whole war is a horrible thing,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington. He did not clarify whether he was saying the attack was unintentional.
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Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin, Sam McNeil in Barcelona, Spain, Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
