When Volodymyr Niakin hurried to the center of Sumy to meet his wife and seven -year -old son, who only made it a few moments in front of a rocket, he described that he came across a post -apocalyptic scene.
The corpses were scattered over the floor and cars were swallowed into flames after rockets in Sumy, a city in northeastern Ukraine, had hit a once busting area.
“People called and cried near the dead,” he told CBC News. “My son told me that this is the worst day of his life … it is also the worst of my life.”
At least 35 people were killed and more than 115 injured when two Russian ballistic rockets near Sumy State University exploded, as many were on the way to the church on Palm Sunday.
Russia says it was aimed at meeting military commander in the city. However, human rights experts say that the recent attack is an “ugly indicator” of a worrying trend that they have seen since the beginning of the year: more and more civilian population are being killed, and when Washington has also tried to convince Russia to agree to an armistice.
Russian rockets met the heart of the Ukrainian city of Sumy when people gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday and kill at least 34 people, said officials. US President Donald Trump called the attack “terrible” and said he was said to have made a mistake. ”
“We understand that things get worse.”
According to Niankin, the two rockets in Sumy, a city of about a quarter of a million people, beat people about 100 meters apart.
The first weapon met a conference center of Sumys State University, where Niakin and his wife also led a small community theater.
After the first rocket had hit, Niakin’s wife called him to say that she and her son left a building nearby and went to an animal shelter. As they ran there, the second rocket exploded. The power of the explosion blew a door that landed on her son’s leg.
While the child was only injured and was not seriously injured, Niakin said that he was traumatized by the attack.
“Most people died after the second rocket because they were on the street.”
Some were killed in a trolley bus that just drove past when the second rocket exploded.
“It’s just terrible,” he said to CBC News in an interview about Zoom.
“We understand that things get worse.”
Increasing civilian victims
After UN human rights monitoring mission in UkraineBetween January and March of this year, more than 440 civilians were killed and over 2,200 were injured, which rose by 47 percent in the same period in 2024.
Experts are less than in the middle of April say that this dark pattern is continued.
Nine days before the strikes in Sumy, 20 people were killed In the southern central town of Kryvyi Rih, when a ballistic rocket slapped into a residential area and sprayed through sprays sprayed over a wide range, including a playground.
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Nine children were killed in this attack, including a nine -year -old who was on a swing at that time.
“This attack had the highest number of children who have been killed since the full invasion,” said Danielle Bell, head of the UN mission of human rights monitoring in Ukraine.
“The patterns and trends of the damage we document are very worrying.”
The attack on Sumy’s city center, which is about 30 kilometers from the Russian border, came two days after Washington’s special representative Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg were met for discussions, which the Kremlin described as “extremely useful”.
In a statement, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that its armed forces had fired two tactical Iskander M rockets at a meeting of military commanders. It was said that more than 60 Ukrainian soldiers were killed, although it did not provide any evidence.
While US President Donald Trump described the attack as “terribly” – added to him that “made a mistake” was told that he was not entering into details.
Later, on Monday, in comments on social media and in the Oval Office, Trump questioned the competence of the Ukrainian president and accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Many European leaders have convicted Russia’s attack in Sumy. Germany’s Chancellor, in which he is waiting, called Friedrich Merz as a serious “war crime”.
A city 30 kilometers from the front
Russia has previously attacked Sumy with rockets, drones and bombs, especially since August, when Ukraine made its surprise into the Russia region in Kursk.
Niakin says the weapons usually aim at military sites and those associated with the electrical infrastructure. According to the Ukrainian officials, this strike was the deadliest attack on civilians this year.
The head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said that the rockets were filled with cluster ammunition to leave a more devastating wake.
According to international humanitarian law, an attack on a military object can be illegal If there is an indiscriminately or disproportionate impact on civilians.
Experts of the UN human rights monitoring mission send a team to Sumy to speak to victims and eyewitnesses and collect evidence.
You try to do this after every civilian attack, said Bell. She says that more civilians were killed with a long time due to an “increased use of weapons”, which in some cases have reached schools and residential buildings.
“We have recorded an increase in attacks that have influenced medical institutions … hospitals and clinics,” said Bell.
More drones in Sumy
In Sumy, Niakin and his wife visited the community theater covered by Toll on Sunday afternoon. The roof of the building had disappeared, and stacks of bricks had collapsed on the once of their stage. They save which props and costumes they could find from the partially destroyed changing room.
Niakin believes that some families living in the city may move further west.
However, he says he will not be because he has an older grandmother in the city. He and his wife also believe that it is important for them that they stay so that they continue to carry out drama programs for children in the city.
“For us it is like a social mission to stay in Sumy,” he said, but he doubted that the city would get exhaustion.
After the tragedy on Sunday, he believed that Monday could prove to be calmer, but he had quickly turned out to be wrong.
“Shahed (drone) landed in part of the city about an hour ago,” he said, referring to Iranian -designed drones that explode.
“I saw the black smoke out of my window.”
