After Russia launched a missile strike on the metropolis of Sumy on Palm Sunday — killing 35 civilians, together with youngsters, and injuring over 100 others — U.S. President Donald Trump wrote off the assault as a “mistake.”
"I believe it was horrible, and I used to be advised they made a mistake, however I believe it's a horrible factor, Trump stated when requested concerning the Sumy assault.
However Russia’s missile strike on Sumy is only one in a sequence of lethal assaults on civilian areas because the begin of its full-scale invasion towards Ukraine. Moscow’s assaults have repeatedly focused residential buildings, railway stations, metropolis facilities, hospitals, evacuation convoys, and folks’s gatherings — together with a wake service — inflicting excessive civilian casualties with every one.
“(Launching) a missile with cluster munitions is one thing Russians do to kill as many civilians as doable,” stated Presidential Workplace Head Andriy Yermak, referring to one of many missiles used within the Sumy assault, which contained fragments that exploded mid-air to inflict most injury to the encompassing space.
Russia’s newest lethal assault additionally comes amid ceasefire negotiations and peace talks brokered by the U.S. Whereas Kyiv agreed to a full 30-day ceasefire on March 11, Moscow has to date refused to take action. Sumy residents advised the Kyiv Unbiased on April 14 that assaults on the town have solely gotten worse in current months.
Whereas the Kremlin routinely claims to hit navy targets whereas placing civilian areas, in just one case with mass casualties did worldwide observers discover Ukrainian forces partially answerable for endangering civilians after taking firing positions within the Stara Krasnianka nursing dwelling in Luhansk Oblast in 2022.
As a consequence of closely mined fields across the nursing dwelling, the Ukrainian navy stated it was unable to evacuate the 86 folks among the many nursing dwelling’s sufferers and employees. On March 11, 2022, Russians attacked the constructing with heavy weapons, killing not less than 56 civilians.
However worldwide regulation dictates that even the presence of troopers doesn’t justify navy motion if there’s a excessive danger of civilian casualties, Dmytro Koval, lawyer and director of the Ukrainian human rights group Fact Hounds advised the Kyiv Unbiased earlier as a part of an investigation into Russia’s destruction of the Kakhovka dam in Kherson Oblast that took the lives of an estimated a whole lot of civilians.
Under is a listing of Russia’s deadliest assaults on civilians on document because the begin of the full-scale invasion. The listing reveals a sample of focused assaults at civilian facilities, with little or no proof to counsel the strikes have been failed makes an attempt at hitting Ukrainian navy targets.
Kharkiv administration constructing
With Russia’s advance in March 2022, shortly after the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Moscow launched a number of assaults with mass civilian casualties in regional facilities alongside Ukraine’s northern borders with Russia and Belarus.
Round 8 a.m. on March 1, Russia hit the Kharkiv Regional State Administration constructing on the town’s essential sq. with two "Kalibr" cruise missiles.
The primary strike on the sq. was captured on video, exhibiting a number of civilian automobiles disappearing in an explosion.
The second missile destroyed the best wing of the constructing lower than 10 minutes later, when rescuers arrived on the scene — in what would grow to be a mannequin for quite a few subsequent ‘double-tap’ assaults, designed to hit the primary responders arriving on the scene of an assault quickly after the primary strike.
Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov later shared in 2023 that the ultimate demise toll within the Kharkiv administration constructing assault was 44 folks.
Residential space in Chernihiv
On March 3, 2022, Russia bombed a sq. in a residential space of the town of Chernihiv, a regional heart that lies between Russia and Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, killing 47 folks.
“This was a cruel, indiscriminate assault on folks as they went about their day by day enterprise of their properties, streets and retailers,” stated Joanne Mariner, Amnesty Worldwide’s disaster response director.
After an investigation, Amnesty Worldwide was not in a position to establish a reliable navy goal within the neighborhood of the strike. The vast majority of victims have been queuing for meals when the missiles struck, the investigation discovered.
Houses in Sumy
In a single day on March 7, 2022, Russian forces launched three bombs on properties in Sumy, a northern regional heart that borders Russia’s Kursk Oblast, Bryansk, and Belgorod oblasts.
The strikes took the lives of 22 folks, together with three youngsters, based on native officers. Considered one of them was Artem Pryimenko, Ukraine’s 15-year-old Sambo champion, killed along with his two youthful brothers and their complete household on the eve of their deliberate evacuation from the town.
Kramatorsk railway station
The town of Kramatorsk is a vital logistics hub in Ukraine’s jap Donetsk Oblast — one of many areas Russia has tried to totally seize because the begin of the full-scale invasion and the place the warfare’s heaviest battles have been fought.
On Apr. 8, 2022, when over a thousand Kramatorsk residents, primarily girls and youngsters, have been queuing for an evacuation prepare, Russia launched two Tochka-U ballistic missiles on the Kramatorsk railway station.
It’s the deadliest single assault on civilians in Ukraine on document because the begin of the full-scale invasion, killing 63 folks, together with 9 youngsters. Russia initially claimed it had hit a navy goal, however then denied its accountability after worldwide experiences of killed civilians.
"There was a lot blood, useless folks in all places," 19-year-old Anastasiia Shestopal, who misplaced her leg within the assault, advised the Kyiv Unbiased.
Shopping center in Kremenchuk
Kremenchuk was thought-about a comparatively secure metropolis resulting from being situated in Ukraine’s heart removed from the entrance — till a Russian strike on a shopping center within the metropolis heart on June 27, 2022. The missile strike destroyed the mall, killing 21 folks.
The Kredmash highway equipment plant was situated simply behind the mall — doubtlessly the goal of Russia’s two Kh-22 anti-ship cruise missiles launched that day on the space.
Regardless of the excessive civilian demise toll, Russia continues to strike Ukrainian cities with these missiles, that are outdated and “notoriously inaccurate” when fired at floor targets in city areas, based on British intelligence.
5-story residential buildings in Chasiv Yar
The city of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk Oblast noticed one of many deadliest Russian assaults on civilians in 2022, earlier than the devastation of the battle for its neighbor Bakhmut and a bloody struggle by itself outskirts.
Russian troops hit two five-story residence buildings in Chasiv Yar round 9 p.m. on Saturday, July 9, with an Uragan a number of rocket launcher, constructed to inflict most injury to extensive areas with 16 rockets fired over twenty seconds.
A rescue operation to clear the 2 sections of the flats that collapsed into piles of rubble within the assault took 5 days.
9 folks have been discovered alive, whereas two troopers and 46 civilians have been killed, together with one youngster. Russia falsely claimed to have killed over 300 troopers within the strike.
Vinnytsia metropolis heart
On July 14, 2022, as a convention befell in The Hague on holding Russia accountable for warfare crimes, Russia launched an assault on the metropolis of Vinnytsia, one other regional capital in central Ukraine removed from the entrance traces.
Between 10 and 11 a.m. on a workday, 5 Russian Kalibr cruise missiles have been fired on the metropolis’s heart. The Ukrainian navy claimed to have shot a few of them down, whereas others hit a medical heart, workplaces, shops, and residential buildings, injuring over 200 folks.
Liza Dmytriyeva, a 4-year-old Ukrainian woman with Down syndrome who was coming from a speech remedy session along with her mom, was considered one of 28 civilians killed within the strike. It additionally claimed the lives of two different youngsters.
Photographs of her bloodied stroller mendacity on the highway subsequent to her physique went viral on-line as proof of Russia’s continued warfare crimes.
Kharkiv dormitories
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis earlier than the warfare and one of many closest to the border with Russia, endured a marketing campaign of relentless months-long shelling earlier than Ukrainian troops pushed Russian forces past the attain of artillery fireplace throughout the Kharkiv counteroffensive in 2022.
Weeks earlier than the counteroffensive started, within the early morning and late night of Aug. 17, Russia fired missiles at residential buildings in two districts.
The 2 strikes killed a mixed 25 folks, together with one youngster. Most of the buildings’ residents have been aged.
Chaplyne railway station
Till a Russian assault on the village of Hroza in 2023, Chaplyne, a village of 4,000 folks, was one of many smallest settlements the place a single assault brought on mass civilian casualties.
Russia launched 5 missiles on a Chaplyne railway hub on Ukraine’s Independence Day on Aug. 24, 2022.
One missile strike brought on a residential constructing to break down, burying a lady with two boys — an 11 and 13-year-old underneath the rubble. Locals have been in a position to rescue the lady and the older boy alive. The opposite missiles hit the railway station and set wagons, buildings, and automobiles containing folks on fireplace.
In complete, 25 residents have been killed within the assault, together with two youngsters.
Evacuation column of civilian automobiles close to Zaporizhzhia
On Sept. 30, 2022, the day Russia introduced the annexation of 4 solely partially occupied Ukrainian oblasts after mock referendums the place some residents have been requested to vote at gunpoint, Russia launched fourteen S-300 missiles on the metropolis of Zaporizhzhia.
A number of missiles hit a convoy of about 60 civilian automobiles gathered on the town outskirts, ready for a pre-planned journey to the Russian-occupied a part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast to choose up kin or ship assist. Missile shrapnel killed 32 folks of their automobiles and the encompassing space, together with two youngsters.
Residential constructing in Dnipro
On Jan. 14, 2023, Russia launched not less than one Kh-22 missile — an virtually six-ton, imprecise Soviet weapon designed to explode warships — on the heart of Ukraine’s fourth largest metropolis, Dnipro.
The missile struck a nine-story residence constructing, leveling one part to the bottom in a cut up second and killing at least 46 people within the constructing and on the streets outdoors. The county was shocked by the brutality of the assault.
In movies from the assault’s aftermath shared on-line, screams and voices may very well be heard from underneath the rubble.
Six youngsters have been killed, together with an 11-month-old, Mykyta, whose 27-year-old mom, Kateryna Zelenska, was rescued alive after 20 freezing hours underneath the rubble subsequent to the our bodies of her son and husband.
Though the rubble has been absolutely cleared since, eleven individuals are nonetheless thought-about lacking, because the rescuers couldn’t discover traces of their our bodies.
Over a 12 months later, in April 2024, Ukraine introduced its first profitable interception of two Kh-22 missiles.
Condominium constructing in Uman
Round 4:00 a.m. on Apr. 28, 2023, Russia launched over twenty Kh-101 long-range missiles on the central Ukrainian metropolis of Uman, a yearly pilgrimage website of Hasidic jews situated 200 miles away from the entrance line.
Two of the missiles destroyed a nine-story constructing. Ukrainian authorities stated that the assault killed 23 civilians, together with six youngsters.
All of the victims’ our bodies have been discovered and recognized inside a day of the assault, as dozens of Uman residents joined the rescuers of their search, and their blood kin might submit DNA for identification at a specifically organized assortment level.
Wake service within the village of Hroza
A funeral reception for a soldier within the small village of Hroza in Kharkiv Oblast gathered round 60 native residents in a restaurant close to a playground on Oct. 5, 2023.
Primarily based on a tip from two collaborators, Russia launched an Iskander ballistic missile on the cafe. Fifty-nine civilians — virtually a fifth of the village’s inhabitants — have been killed within the devastating strike, together with 36 girls, 22 males, and an 8-year-old boy.
The OHCHR stated in a report that it “has affordable grounds to imagine that the reception was the supposed goal of an assault” by Russian forces.
No less than 15 households within the village misplaced a couple of member of the family within the assault. The fallen soldier’s household was killed as nicely. Half of the our bodies have been so mutilated that the DNA testing had for use for identification, the report stated.
“There have been our bodies and physique elements in all places. My daughter’s greatest pal was solely recognized by her manicure once they discovered her hand,” stated Valentyna, a neighborhood civilian witness of the Hroza assault cited within the OHCHR’s report.
Playground in Kryvyi Rih
For the reason that Kramatorsk railway station assault, essentially the most youngsters killed in a single assault occurred in early April 2025, in the course of the U.S. talks with Russia on a possible short-term ceasefire.
On Apr. 4, a Russian cluster ballistic missile hit a residential space with a playground, restaurant, and residence buildings in Kryvyi Rih, a significant industrial hub in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The strike killed 20 folks. 9 of them have been youngsters, some strolling round with their mother and father, grandparents, or pals, and a few simply at dwelling with their households.
Cluster munitions encompass many smaller detonating models. Ukraine’s Inside Affairs Ministry stated on April 5 that the missile “was geared up with a cluster munition to maximise the variety of folks killed.”
Russia's Protection Ministry claimed that its “exact” strike had focused a gathering of "unit commanders and Western instructors" in a restaurant, killing round 85 of them. However safety footage reveals that no navy personnel have been current there, based on the France 24 report.
Sumy metropolis heart on an Orthodox Christian celebration
The newest in a protracted line of Russian assaults on civilians befell on the final Palm Sunday on April 13, when Russia launched a "double-tap" strike with Iskander-M missiles on Sumy’s metropolis heart within the late morning.
In complete, 35 native residents have been killed, amongst them two youngsters. Over 100 folks have been injured. One of many strikes killed a lot of the passengers on a metropolis bus. A 13-year-old boy pulled a couple of survivors out of the burning bus, his mother amongst them, after climbing out of the bus’s window.
Russia deployed cluster munitions in its second strike a couple of minutes after the primary to inflict deliberate casualties on civilians in downtown Sumy, native authorities stated.
All of the individuals who died have been pedestrians and civilians in their very own automobiles or public transport. A few of them burned alive, whereas others bled out of their automobiles earlier than rescuers might pull them out. Ukrainian orchestra musician Olena Kohut was among the many victims.
Native authorities later confirmed rumors of a deliberate navy ceremony on the day of the assault.
Whereas European leaders have denounced the assault as a warfare crime and proof of Russia's rejection of peace efforts, U.S. officers responded with condolences for Ukraine however no requires elevated strain on Moscow.
Extra civilian casualties
Among the highest estimated civilian casualty tolls — within the presently Russian-occupied southern metropolis of Mariupol — nonetheless stay undocumented.
Russia has systematically destroyed proof and prevented worldwide investigations into its strikes — together with the bombing of the Mariupol drama theater on March 16, 2022, the place between 300 to 600 individuals are estimated to have been killed whereas they have been taking shelter.
Amnesty Worldwide referred to as the strike “a transparent warfare crime” by the Russian military in its interview-based and open supply investigation.
Human Rights Watch put the overall civilian demise toll from Russia’s siege of Mariupol in 2022 at round 8,000 folks, however added that true numbers are doubtless a lot greater.
The Kyiv IndependentNick Allard
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Howdy, that is Natalia Yermak, the creator of this text. Thanks for studying it.
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