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Zelenskyy says 'savage' Russian attack on Sumy that killed three people shows the need for sanctions
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has commented on the deadly Russian airstrike on Sumy earlier today, which he called a “savage” assault that deliberately targeted civilians on “ordinary streets”.
The Ukrainian leader said “many people have been wounded” and that at least three people have been killed.
He said the attack showed that Russia is not serious in pursuing peace. Zelenskyy wrote on X:
It is obvious: without global pressure – without decisive actions from the United States, Europe, and everyone in the world who has the power – Putin will not agree even to a ceasefire.
Not a single day goes by without Russia striking Ukrainian cities and villages. Every day, we lose our people to Russian terror. Every day, Russia gives new reasons for tougher sanctions and stronger support for our defence.
I am grateful to everyone around the world who is promoting exactly this agenda: sanctions for aggression and the killing of people, and assistance in defending the lives of Ukrainians.
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We have been reporting on how Russian attacks on civilian targets are continuing across Ukraine despite efforts to try to halt the fighting, at least temporarily.
Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, has said that Russia is deliberately targeting rescuers who try to rescue people trapped under the rubble after such assaults.
He wrote in a post on Telegram:
In just one week – from 26 May to 2 June – rescuers of the state emergency service of Ukraine came under enemy fire about a dozen times.
Emergency workers from Zaporizhia, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, and Kharkiv regions were hit. Six fire and rescue units and 6 more pieces of equipment were damaged.
Russia has been accused of launching “double tap” missile strikes, when an initial airstrike is quickly followed by a second attack, usually within the space of 30 minutes, in an attempt to kill rescuers trying to help the injured.
Russian rocket attack kills two in Ukrainian city of Sumy
A Russian rocket attack on the north-eastern city of Sumy killed at least two people on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said.
Russia fired five rockets from an MLRS system on the city at about 9am local time, the according to the head of the city administration, Oleg Grygorov.
“Unfortunately two people were killed,” and 20 more injured, he said, adding that a medical facility, cars and houses were damaged in the Russian attack.
Sumy is about 30 kilometres from the Russian border, and was a vital logistics hub for Ukraine’s months-long offensive into Russia’s Kursk region.
The city has come under intense Russian bombardment as Vladimir Putin has ordered his troops to create a “buffer zone” inside the Sumy region, which borders Russia.
The Russian presdient said last month that so-called security buffer zones would be created to provide “additional support” to areas in Russia which border Ukraine’s Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv regions.
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A Ukrainian delegation led by Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, and including Andrii Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, arrived in the US earlier today.
The delegation will discuss “defence support, the battlefield situation, and strengthening sanctions against Russia, namely Senator (Lindsey) Graham’s bill,” Yermak wrote in a post on Telegram.
Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, is co-sponsoring a bipartisan bill to impose more sanctions on Russia. Lawmakers – from both the Republican party and the Democrats – are expected to shortly move forward with a vote on the bill this week.
To become law, the measure, which has over 80 cosponsors, must pass the Senate and House of Representatives and be signed by Trump, who has recently expressed anger towards Vladimir Putin over Russia’s heavy missile and drone attacks on Ukraine during ceasefire negotiations.
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What was proposed and agreed upon during the Istanbul talks?
Here is a quick recap of the outcomes of the talks in Istanbul, which ended much sooner than was anticipated, having lasted barely an hour.
Russia presented terms during the negotiations that highlighted its refusal to compromise on its longstanding war goals. A text of Moscow’s memorandum, published by Russian state media, said a settlement would require international recognition of Crimea and four other regions of Ukraine that Moscow has claimed as its own territory, as well as the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces. It also ruled out Ukrainian membership of Nato and demanded recognising Russian as the country’s official language.
Russia’s memorandum presented two options that both appeared to be non-starters for Ukraine. Option one: for Ukraine to start a full military withdrawal from the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. Option two: Ukraine to cease military redeployments and accept a halt to foreign provision of military aid, satellite communications and intelligence. Kyiv would also have to lift martial law and hold presidential and parliamentary elections within 100 days.
Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said officials would need a week to review Russia’s memorandum and decide on a response. Umerov, who led the Ukrainian delegation, said Kyiv was proposing further talks sometime between 20 and 30 June, but he added that Kyiv believes only a meeting between Volodymr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin can resolve the many issues of contention.
Umerov said the “only real progress” from the talks was reaching an agreement on releasing prisoners. The delegations agreed to swap 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed in action and to set up a commission to exchange seriously wounded troops. Zelenskiy said Ukraine presented a list of 400 children it says have been abducted to Russia, but that the Russian delegation agreed to work on returning only 10 of them.
Russia’s lead negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said Moscow proposed a partial ceasefire of “two to three days” at the talks in Istanbul. He told reporters that the proposed ceasefire would apply to certain areas of the frontline to allow commanders to collect the bodies of their soldiers. Ukraine said Russia had rejected its offer of an unconditional ceasefire.
Deadly Russian attacks continue after Turkey peace talks end with no significant breakthrough
Welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Russian shelling killed at least five people on Monday in different frontline areas of eastern Ukraine, officials said. One death was in the city of Kramatorsk, where two others were injured; and two deaths were further south in the town of Illinivka where another three were injured.
In the Kharkiv region, further to the north, prosecutors said two women were killed in a village south of Kupiansk, which has come under heavy Russian attack for months.
The attacks came as a second round of peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv ended yesterday in Istanbul without a significant breakthrough – only a deal to swap more prisoners of war.
An agreement had been made to return the remains of killed service personnel, but this would take careful preparation, said Ukrainian negotiators. Russia proposed a ceasefire of two or three days in some areas of the frontline to allow the Russian army to collect the many bodies it has left lying on the battlefield.
Ukrainian officials said the Russians rejected Kyiv’s call for an unconditional ceasefire of at least a month, instead handing over a proposal that would need to be studied by Kyiv. The Ukrainians suggested the talks should reconvene towards the end of June.
