Russian troops hit the center of Suma with Iskander M ballistic missiles, said fresh Europe military analyst and erstwhile Ukrainian Armed Forces officer Ivan Stupak. “ At least 1 of them had a weapon loaded with shrapnel. It is from these striking elements on the walls of the buildings that there are thousands of traces that we see in the photographs from the scene of the tragedy. Each steel sphere is about 1.5 mm in diameter and moves up to 2000 m per sec. specified weapons have unlimited consequences. It cannot be utilized in populated areas or places where civilians may be present. By firing these missiles at the regional centre on Palm Sunday, the Russians committed another war crime," the expert said.
— Even if we presume that there was a gathering at that time in Sumach, in which the military attended, the usage of ballistic missiles filled with deadly shrapnel in a densely populated place is simply a violation of the rules of war and the 1949 Geneva Convention," said military expert Roman Switan, Colonel of the Armed Forces Reserve of Ukraine.
“We witnessed a Russian terrorist attack on the center of a large city. Note that Sumy is simply a city on the front line. There's quite a few military personnel there. You can hit almost any large building and almost surely hit a soldier. But during the day, there are definitely civilians on the streets on the weekend. He who gave the order to launch the rocket could not neglect to realize that civilian casualties would inevitably be made," said Switan.
PAP/EP/UKRAINE STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE HANDOUT / PAPdemolition caused by rocket attack on the center of Sumy city, Ukraine, 13 April 2025.
U.S. president Donald Trump, asked for comment on Vladimir Putin's Sunday military attack on Sumy, stated that it was a Russian ‘mistake’. - I think it was terrible. And I was told they made a mistake. But I think it's a terrible thing. I think the full war is terrible. I believe that the fact that this war started is an abuse of power," he said, stressing that if he had been president of “this country (US) would never have allowed this war to erupt.”
As fresh Gazieta recalls, the "Iskander M" warhead is about 300 kg of explosives in the "flat" of tens of thousands of impact elements weighing 200 kg. Russia has late hit Ukrainian cities more frequently with ballistic missiles, as Ukrainian air defence forces have learned to effectively shoot down maneuvering missiles. The capture of ballistic missiles requires Patriot rocket systems, and they are very missing in Ukraine.
Ivan Stupak, a military analyst, called the “illogical” usage of warheads with destructive elements to impact a building located in the depths in which the targets of the fire may be located — for this purpose, missiles with high-force warheads are utilized to destruct the full structure.
However, in Sumach the Russians utilized a rocket filled with shrapnel, said the expert. “ specified ammunition is utilized to kill people in open ground. A akin rocket had previously killed children and adults in the thin Horn, he explained.
Target. “Russians will not hesitate”
The Russian army could have received information about the concentration of soldiers in the centre of Suma from long-range reconnaissance drones, as well as from agents or through interception of information from communications networks, emphasizes military expert Roman Switan. But even having the information the military collected in the city is not a reason to hit them with 2 ballistic missiles with destructive elements, he continues.
“The mass killing of civilians by rocket attacks is simply a real terror,” Ivan Stupak agrees. — The goal is to psychologically break the Ukrainian people and induce Volodymyr Zelenski to conclude a peace agreement on Russian terms as shortly as possible. The Russians do not hesitate to usage specified tools straight during ongoing negotiations between US leaders, the Russian Federation and Ukraine," said fresh Gazieta.
According to Roman Switan, Russia is thus trying to "purely and cynically" put force on Ukraine to force the Kievs to surrender: "The day before yesterday Steve Witkoff squeezed Putin. And today, the rocket ripped more than 30 people into pieces and injured a 100 more. Earlier, there was a fire of the thin Horn, Dnieper, Kiev and another Ukrainian cities,” concluded the expert.
