By Ian Lovett

KYIV, Ukraine -- A Russian ballistic-missile strike on the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy killed at least 31 people, Ukrainian officials said, leaving civilian bodies lying bloodied and motionless in a central street.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack, which took place Sunday morning while many people were celebrating Palm Sunday, was evidence that Russia had no intention of bringing its three-year war to an end.

The strike was the second Russian attack this month to cause mass civilian casualties and came two days after U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, as part of President Trump's push for a cease-fire.

"Russia wants exactly this kind of terror and is dragging this war out," Zelensky said on X. "Without pressure on Russia, peace is impossible. Talks have never stopped ballistic missiles and aerial bombs."

Videos from central Sumy showed gruesome scenes in the aftermath of the two-missile strike. In one clip posted by Ukrainian officials, at least a dozen bodies can be seen lying in the street, many of them bloody and motionless, with limbs broken and twisted. Many cars were still on fire as emergency personnel waded through the rubble looking for survivors.

At least 87 people were injured, according to Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine's interior minister.

"Deliberate destruction of civilians on a major church holiday," Klymenko wrote on social media. "People were injured right in the middle of the street, in cars, public transport, in houses."

The Russian Foreign Ministry didn't respond to a request for comment.

Trump's push for a cease-fire has been thwarted by the Kremlin, which has stuck to its demands for Ukraine's capitulation. Moscow has sought to project confidence that it is winning in Ukraine, even as its advances on the main battlefields in eastern Ukraine have slowed in recent weeks.

"Russia has to get moving. Too many people [a]re DYING, thousands a week, in a terrible and senseless war," Trump wrote on social media Friday, ahead of the meeting between Witkoff and Putin.

On Sunday, Zelensky called for a strong response from the U.S. and other Western countries, making the case -- as he has following past strikes on civilian areas -- that the only way to get Russia to the negotiating table is through pressure.

Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump's envoy to Ukraine, said in a post on X that the Russian strike "crosses any line of decency."

"It is why President Trump is working hard to end this war," he wrote.

Trump last week said he was "not happy about what's going on with the bombing," following a strike on the Ukrainian city of Kryviy Rih that killed 20 people, including nine children. But Trump has been unwilling to try to publicly strong-arm Moscow. Russia was left off the list of countries on which the Trump administration said it would impose tariffs.

Meanwhile, Europe has continued to impose new rounds of sanctions on Moscow. But the continent's leverage against Moscow is limited without U.S. participation.

On Sunday, Kaja Kallas, the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs and security, condemned the Sumy attack.

"Horrific example of Russia intensifying attacks while Ukraine has accepted an unconditional cease-fire," she wrote on X.

Write to Ian Lovett at ian.lovett@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 13, 2025 10:45 ET (14:45 GMT)

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