Ukraine claims to have struck a base belonging to a Russian rocket brigade that conducted a deadly strike on the city of Sumy on Palm Sunday.
“(A base) of the 448th missile brigade of the Russian occupiers was hit, a secondary detonation of ammunition was recorded. The results of the strike are being clarified,” the military said in a statement on Telegram.
Footage taken on the side of a road appears to show a huge fire roaring at the base, which is based in Kursk, late last night.
Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier today that Ukraine urgently needed air defence systems after Russian missile strikes, including on Sumy, which killed 34 people and injured 100 more.
“Absolutely everyone sees how acute Ukraine’s need for air defence systems and missiles is. We talked about this a lot today,” the Ukrainian president told Mark Rutte, secretary general of Nato, during a visit to the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa.
Mr Rutte insisted that Nato’s support for Ukraine was “unwavering” but his visit came as the Trump administration blocked the G7 from releasing a statement condemning Russia’s strike.
A source told Bloomberg that news that the US was “working to preserve the space to negotiate peace”, meaning it will hold back on criticising Russian strikes.
Nato’s secretary general has said that Donald Trump’s push for a ceasefire in Ukraine was “not easy” and condemned Russia’s “terrible pattern” of attacks on Ukrainian civilians.
“These discussions are not easy, not least in the wake of this horrific violence. But we all support President Trump’s push for peace,” Mark Rutte said of US-led talks during a surprise visit to the port city of Odesa, where he met with Volodymyr Zelensky.
Mr Rutte’s comments contrast with an assessment from Mr Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who said he sees a peace deal “emerging” after talks with Vladimir Putin in Russia last week.
Serbia could be blocked from joining the European Union if its president travels to Russia next month for Vladimir Putin’s Victory Day parade.
Russian state media reported that Aleksandar Vucic would be one of the foreign dignitaries in attendance, as well as contributing military hardware to the spectacle on May 9.
In response, European officials warned Mr Vucic that his visit would be a breach of the bloc’s membership criteria and would derail his country’s EU ambitions.
“We need to ensure that they understand that certain decisions come at a cost,” said Jonatan Vseviov, the secretary-general of Estonia’s ministry of foreign affairs. “The consequence is them not joining the European Union.”
Ukrainian, British, French and Turkish representatives will hold a meeting on Black Sea security in Turkey later today, Volodymyr Zelensky has said
The Ukrainian president made the announcement alongside Mark Rutte, the secretary general of Nato, during a visit to the Black Sea port city of Odesa.
JD Vance has branded Volodymyr Zelensky “absurd” for suggesting that Washington was siding with Vladimir Putin.
“I think it’s sort of absurd for Zelensky to tell the [US] government, which is currently keeping his entire government and war effort together, that we are somehow on the side of the Russians,” Mr Vance said in a new interview.
“You have to try to understand where both the Russians and the Ukrainians see their strategic objectives. That doesn’t mean you morally support the Russian cause,” he told the UnHerd website.
Discussing his public row with Donald Trump and Mr Vance in February, Mr Zelensky earlier told CBS News, “It seems to me that the [US] vice-president is somehow justifying Putin’s actions.”
The Ukrainian president said he tried to explain to Mr Vance that “there is an aggressor and a victim. The Russians are the aggressor, and we are the victim”.
The Trump administration has told its G7 allies that it will not support a statement condemning Russia’s deadly strike on Sumy as it wants to keep peace negotiations with the Kremlin on track.
A source told Bloomberg that without US support, a statement could not be released.
It comes after Donald Trump said the attack was a “mistake” and blamed Volodymyr Zelensky for starting the war.
Ukraine claims to have struck a base belonging to a Russian rocket brigade that conducted a deadly strike on the city of Sumy on Palm Sunday.
“(A base) of the 448th missile brigade of the Russian occupiers was hit, a secondary detonation of ammunition was recorded. The results of the strike are being clarified,” the military said in a statement on Telegram.
A Russian military court has jailed five people for up to 18 years after finding them guilty of setting fire to railway infrastructure and a helicopter outside Moscow last year.
Prosecutors said the group had acted on the orders of people close to Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency, state news reported.
GUR posted video at the time purporting to show the helicopter, which it said belonged to the Russian defence ministry, on fire. But it did not claim responsibility for the attack.
The court, which held its proceedings behind closed dors, said the defendants – four men and one woman – had set fire to a railway relay box and had later torched a search and rescue helicopter parked at the Ostafyevo airfield outside Moscow in April 2024.
The Ukraine war grinds on despite Donald Trump’s vainglorious promise to end it within a day, or at least by Easter. At the weekend, dozens were killed and more than 100 injured in a strike on the northern town of Sumy. Two Iskander missiles landed in the busy city centre, one of which hit a trolley bus filled with passengers.
The attack came as worshippers headed to church, with Ukrainian officials saying the weapons were packed with cluster munitions, designed to take as many lives as possible by scattering hundreds of small fragments on impact.
It is another miserable episode in a conflict that began more than three years ago with Russia’s invasion, but which has really been going on in the east since 2014.
Mr Trump described the missile strike as “a mistake”, causing outrage in Ukraine at his apparent willingness to appease the Russian leader whatever he does. Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said: “It is a very disturbing statement which both encourages Putin to continue atrocities and demonstrates that someone in Trump’s entourage is pushing Russian narratives.”
The truth is that it is not necessary for someone else to put Russia’s side because Mr Trump seems happy to do it himself. He is right to say that the carnage needs to end and a ceasefire leading to peace is the only way that can happen. But he appears to want a deal whatever the cost to Ukraine and with few concessions from the Kremlin.
Residents in Sumy are feeling a mixture of “despair, sadness, rage and hatred” after Russia’s deadly Palm Sunday attack, an aid worker in the region has said.
Liza Sherstyuk, who works with World Jewish Relief in Sumy, told the Telegraph that residents had been feeling anxiety “almost all the time” since the attack but that life was carrying on.
“Sumy residents are stunned, but today everyone who could went to work. As I already wrote, utility workers, volunteers and ordinary citizens are clearing up rubble and cleaning glass on the streets where the attack took place,” she said.
“Transport is running, shops are open. People are collecting funds to help the victims and the families of the dead. Everyone I spoke to feels despair, sadness, rage and hatred for the enemy.”
Paul Anticoni, World Jewish Relief’s chief executive, said the attack showed just how important it is that humanitarian assistance is provided in Ukraine.
“This devastating attack is a tragic reminder of the ongoing violence and suffering faced by so many in Ukraine,” he said.
Volodymyr Zelensky has submitted two bills to the Ukrainian parliament to extend martial law and mobilisation.
Martial law was introduced on Feb 24, 2022, following Russia’s invasion, and is due to run out on May 9 if it is not extended. It is usually extended each time by 90 days.
The law also prohibits elections, as per the Ukrainian constitution, which has become a point of contention since Donald Trump returned to power and labelled Mr Zelensky a “dictator without elections”.
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Ukraine war latest: Kyiv ‘strikes Russian base behind Palm Sunday attack’ – The Telegraph
