Ukrainian rescuers working at the site of a rocket strike in downtown Sumy, Ukraine, 13 April 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE/UKRAINE STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on US President Donald Trump to visit Ukraine to “understand what Putin did” to the country as world leaders condemned a Russian missile strike on the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday that killed 35 people.
In an interview with CBS News released on Sunday but recorded before the Sumy attack, Zelensky said the “security of the world” was at stake in the war in Ukraine, which he warned could “escalate into a world war” if the West did not stand firm against Vladimir Putin.
“Please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of plans for negotiations, come to see the people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead”, Zelensky said, switching from Ukrainian to English to address Trump. “Come, look, and then let’s move with a plan on how to finish the war. You will understand with whom you have a deal. You will understand what Putin did”.
Sunday’s strike on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy was Russia’s deadliest attack of the year so far, leaving 35 people dead and 129 injured on the Christian holiday of Palm Sunday.
Posting a video showing dead people lying on the ground in the aftermath of the strike, Zelensky urged a “strong response” from the US, Europe, and “everyone in the world who wants to stop this war and killing today” and called for Ukraine’s allies to “treat Russia like a terrorist deserves to be treated”.
When asked about the attack on Sunday, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that it was a “horrible thing” and that he had been told that Russia had “made a mistake”, but did not elaborate further.
Trump’s administration condemned the attack, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio extending Washington’s condolences to the victims of the “horrifying” strike and calling it a “tragic reminder” of why the Trump administration was trying to end the war, while Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said the attack crossed “any line of decency”.
European leaders also voiced their outrage, with French President Emmanuel Macron calling for “strong measures” to force Russia into a ceasefire given Moscow’s “blatant disregard of human lives, international law and the diplomatic efforts of President Trump”.
German chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz, meanwhile, called the attack a “serious war crime” and suggested that Berlin could provide Ukraine with German-made Taurus cruise missiles to help it “get off the defensive” in the war.
