Peace eludes shattered Sumy

The Star

16-05-2025

A THICK, roiling cloud of black smoke spiralled up from a parking lot of burning cars, as residents stood dazed on the pavement and emergency vehicles tore past, sirens wailing.
Then the whine of another drone.
'Shelter! Shelter!' a police officer bellowed, as the faint buzz of a Russian exploding drone drifted down from the sky. People bolted.
Firefighters battling a blaze after a Russian drone struck a parking lot in Sumy; (above) mourners at an impromptu memorial for Palm Sunday attack victims. — Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
'It's like this every day,' said Mayor Artem Kobzar, who had been visiting the site in Sumy, northeastern Ukraine, and dashed into the doorway of a nearby apartment block.
'Everybody in Ukraine wants peace,' he added. 'But in Sumy, we don't have a day or night of calm.'
That airstrike occurred on April 13, a day after two ballistic missiles slammed into a residential neighbourhood on Palm Sunday just after 10am, killing 34 civilians – including two children – and injuring 117 others, according to the Sumy City Council.
The wreckage of an apartment struck by Russian missiles in Sumy. — Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Russia claimed it had targeted a military installation. A Ukrainian regional governor confirmed that a military awards ceremony had taken place that day.
The Palm Sunday attack came more than two months after US President Donald Trump initiated ceasefire talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But after the Sumy strike, many in Ukraine and abroad now question whether those talks are collapsing.
Preparations for a potential new Russian ground assault in the region are now under way.
In March, Trump paused military and intelligence aid to Ukraine, pushing for ceasefire discussions while offering Russia incentives of renewed economic cooperation. Ukraine agreed to an unconditional truce, while Russia continues to demand sanctions relief and other concessions.
Rescue workers searching the rubble of a building destroyed in the Palm Sunday missile attack in Sumy. — Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
In remarks from the Oval Office, Trump placed blame on former US president Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin.
'The war wouldn't have started if Biden were competent, and if Zelenskyy were competent – and I don't know that he is,' Trump said.
'We had a rough session with this guy. He just kept asking for more and more.'
Still, Trump claimed: 'I want to stop the killing, and I think we're doing well in that regard.'
European leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the civilian deaths.
Trump, speaking later to reporters aboard Air Force One, called the strike a 'horrible thing', adding, 'I was told they made a mistake.'
Zelenskyy, however, pointed to the attack as proof that Russia is not serious about peace.
'Ukraine responded positively to the US proposal for a full and unconditional ceasefire,' he said. 'Russia remains focused on continuing the war.'
Drone strikes are intensifying across the country, and Sumy – just 30km from the Russian border – is particularly vulnerable. The city has become a tragic symbol of both frontline exposure and diplomatic failure.
Life here is lived on edge.
A woman arrives on Monday, April 14, 2025, to lay flowers at an impromptu memorial to those killed in the Palm Sunday missile attack on Sumy, Ukraine. Threats of air attacks repeatedly disrupted the cleanup work at the site of Sunday's attack, a sprawl of burned cars and splays of brick on the sidewalks. (Tyler Hicks/The New York Times)
Ancient churches and leafy boulevards are interrupted by bombed-out apartment blocks and the thrum of drones overhead.
'Few believe in a ceasefire,' said one resident.
At the Palm Sunday attack site, a backhoe scraped through rubble as rescuers searched for more victims.
The scene was apocalyptic: charred cars, shattered glass, crumbling masonry, bloodstains and ash. Bomb alerts repeatedly interrupted the work.
Mourners stepped around debris to lay flowers at a makeshift memorial.
Few here accept the idea of a 'mistake', as Trump suggested.
The two missiles hit three minutes apart, in a 'double-tap' strike – a tactic designed to maximise casualties by target­ing emergency workers and survivors.
'It's horrifying,' said Oleh Strilka, a spokes­man for Ukraine's emergency services. 'They fire a second missile once help arrives.'
He described variations of this tactic across the region.
One such strike in March hit a hospital bomb shelter entrance, trapping people inside. Another involved a drone loitering overhead to target fire trucks responding to blazes started by artillery.
Fire crews in some areas have stopped responding.
On Palm Sunday, amid dust and shrieking alarms, Viktoria Rudyka, 37, knelt on a blood-slicked pavement, pressing her hands over a gaping wound in her six-year-old daughter's chest.
A passing car stopped and rushed them to hospital. Seconds later, the second missile hit, raining debris on the vehicle. Doctors later removed a metal shard from the child's lung.
Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov claimed the missile strike hit a meeting of Ukrainian and Western military officials.
Sumy's governor, Volodymyr Artyukh, said he had attended a ceremony honouring soldiers, suggesting that military personnel were present.
The drone strike the next day didn't involve a double tap, but the pattern of repeat attacks has left residents traumatised and distrustful of peace efforts.
Four employees of the Be Happy coffee shop walked together to the strike site, laying pink and white roses where a cook and a pastry chef had been killed. They sobbed and held each other.
'There are no signs of a ceasefire in Sumy,' said Diana Khaitova, 22, a server who found the bodies of her colleagues that day.
'People here are just always afraid.' — ©2025 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times