The United Nations has condemned a Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday that reportedly killed at least 35 people, including two children, and injured at least 117 others, including 15 children. The two missiles hit a busy street in the center of the city in the northeast of the country, damaging residential buildings, an educational institution and civilian vehicles as people were out celebrating Palm Sunday, a major religious holiday in Ukraine.
According to Ukrainian authorities, the missiles struck a busy street in the city center on Sunday morning, also destroying a public bus with people inside and damaging the city's university facility. The second strike reportedly targeted those assisting the victims of the first strike.
The Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, said on Sunday that he was "utterly appalled" by the strikes by Russian forces in the heart of Sumy.
“On behalf of the humanitarian community and the United Nations country team, I condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms and express my deeply felt condolences with the families whose lives have been torn apart,” Schmale said in a statement.
“International humanitarian law strictly prohibits attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure. Those rules exist to protect human life and dignity — and they must be respected at all times.”
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) echoed this point, emphasizing that children must always be protected and that "above all, children need an end to this war."
“I’m devastated by reports of another two children killed and 15 more injured in an attack today in Sumy, north-eastern Ukraine,” said Munir Mammadzade, UNICEF Representative in Ukraine, said in a statement.
“These were children and families in the city center on a busy Sunday preparing for the start of Easter festivities in Ukraine.”
Mammadzade said there could be no justification for such a "callous attack" on Palm Sunday, or at any time, killing or injuring children in the middle of a civilian area.
“Children are not responsible for the war, yet more young lives are ended and devastated with every day that this horror continues,” he said.
“Today’s destruction comes just three weeks after 24 children were injured in another attack that hit Sumy and following last week’s strike in Kryvyi Rih that killed 9 children.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres was deeply alarmed and shocked to learn of Sunday's attack, his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement.
“The attack, on Palm Sunday and at the start of Holy Week, continues a devastating pattern of similar assaults on Ukrainian cities and towns in recent weeks, resulting in civilian casualties and large-scale destruction,” Dujarric said.
Palm Sunday is a Christian holiday that takes place each year before Easter. It marks the beginning of Holy Week, the last week of Lent before Easter Sunday.
Through his spokesperson, Guterres renewed his call for a durable ceasefire in Ukraine and reiterated the UN's support for "meaningful efforts towards a just, lasting and comprehensive peace" that fully respects Ukraine's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, in accordance with the UN Charter, international law and relevant UN resolutions.
Russian airstrikes continue to kill and maim civilians, including children, and destroy civilian infrastructure, including health facilities, apartment blocks, schools and children's playgrounds.
Hostilities remain ongoing in other parts of the country, including the Donetsk, Kherson, Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia regions. According to local authorities, dozens of civilians were killed and many more injured in these regions between April 11 and 14. Homes and civilian infrastructure, including schools and health facilities, were also damaged.
In early April, a massive attack on the densely populated city of Kryvyi Rih in the Dnipro region resulted in multiple civilian casualties - the second deadly attack on the city in a week. According to officials, 20 civilians were killed, including 9 children, and 74 others injured, including 12 children, when a children's playground and a nearby residential area were hit.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which verified many of the casualties in Ukraine, reported that this was the deadliest single attack affecting children since February 2022.
February 24, 2025, marked three years since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has left more than 43,600 civilians dead or injured. Russia escalated its conflict with Ukraine by invading the country on multiple fronts in 2022.
Between February 24, 2022, and March 31, 2025, OHCHR verified the killing of more than 12,900 civilians, including 682 children, and the injury of nearly 30,700 across Ukraine. Most of the casualties were caused by shelling, artillery and rocket attacks.
As these are UN-verified figures, the actual numbers are believed to be much higher. According to human rights monitors, many reports, particularly from certain locations - such as Mariupol and Lysychansk - and from the immediate aftermath of February 24 three years ago, are still being verified due to the large number of reports, or could not be verified due to lack of access to the relevant areas.
As lives and communities are devastated by attacks on civilian infrastructure, humanitarian needs remain critical throughout the country. In 2025, 12.7 million people inside Ukraine are in need of humanitarian assistance, with the majority of them women, children, older people and people with disabilities.
Civilians remain particularly vulnerable to relentless Russian attacks, especially along the eastern and southern frontlines. Serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, are widespread in the ongoing armed assault.
Despite pending international discussions on peace talks, the situation in Ukraine remains extremely volatile, with daily threats of shelling and airstrikes continuing to put lives at risk. The people of Ukraine continue to be killed, wounded, and deeply traumatized by the violence.
The armed conflict has created the largest displacement crisis in Europe since World War II, with more than 10.6 million people still uprooted from their homes and new waves of displacement in the northeast of the country due to hostilities. As of March 2025, some 6.9 million people had been forced to flee abroad, mainly to the Russian Federation, Poland and Germany, while 3.7 million people were internally displaced.
Heavy fighting continues to limit humanitarian access, making it difficult to deliver life-saving assistance to the most vulnerable. Despite this and other challenges, humanitarian organizations were able to reach 1.6 million people with critical aid and services in the first two months of 2025.