Russian Defense Ministry confirms missile attack on Sumy that killed over 30 people, including children

The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) has confirmed that it carried out a missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy on April 13. A statement detailing Moscow’s version of the attack was published on the ministry’s official Telegram channel.

According to the Russian MoD, two Iskander-M missiles targeted a meeting location of the command staff of Ukraine’s “Siversk” operational-tactical group. Moscow’s statement read:

“As a result of the strike, more than 60 personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were eliminated. The Kyiv regime continues to use the Ukrainian population as a human shield, placing military facilities and conducting operations involving [military] servicemen in the center of densely populated cities.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the strikes were carried out using ballistic missiles, with one impacting a university building and another “exploding right above the street.”

Ukrainian officials said that preliminary information indicates cluster munitions were used in the attack. Serhii Kryvosheienko, head of the Sumy City Military Administration, wrote on Telegram that the second of the two explosions was likely filled with munitions that “exploded mid-air to inflict maximum damage on people in the city streets.”

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (SES) reported that 34 people were killed, including two children, and 117 others were injured. Among the wounded are 15 children. According to a report by BBC News Ukrainian, the strike also hit the Congress Center of Sumy State University, a venue that regularly hosts events and classes for children.

The local prosecutor's office later reported that 35 people were killed as a result of the strike.

Among the victims was Olena Kohut, a musician with the Sumy National Theatre’s orchestra, who succumbed to her injuries following the strike. Liudmyla Hordiienko, a deputy head of the regional state tax service, was also confirmed among the dead.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to the attack:

“Enemy missiles hit an ordinary city street, ordinary life: houses, educational institutions, cars on the street... And this is on a day when people go to church: Palm Sunday, the feast of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem. According to preliminary data, we are talking about dozens of dead and wounded civilians. ”

U.S. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said he was told that Russia “made a mistake”:

“I think it was terrible. And I was told that they made a mistake. But I think it’s a horrible thing. I think the whole war is a horrible thing.”

When asked to explain what he meant by Russia making a “mistake,” Trump replied, “I believe it was — look, you’re gonna ask them.”

U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg condemned the Russian strike on Sumy, saying that targeting civilians “crosses any line of decency.” The attack also drew widespread condemnation from European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Sunday’s strike on Sumy followed a Russian attack on a restaurant in Kryvyi Rih on April 4, which Russia said also targeted Ukrainian military personnel. The claim was refuted by footage released by France 24, which showed no military personnel visible in or around the restaurant in the moments leading up to the strike.

The strike on Kryvyi Rih killed 20 — 11 adults and nine children — which means that a total of 55 people, including 11 children, have died as a result of the two attacks.

According to the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine, as of the morning of April 14, at least 618 children have been killed and more than 1,884 have been injured since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.

No less than 16 children have been killed or injured in Ukraine every week since the start of Russia's invasion, according to a November 2024 UN report.