KievAt 10:20 a.m., on a bright Palm Sunday holiday, Tatiana Kvaixa was traveling by bus through downtown Sumi. While talking on the phone with her daughter, a loud bang broke the calm. "This one was really loud," she said. It is believed she got off near School No. 4 and continued walking along Petropávlivska Street. Shortly after, the second missile landed. The call was cut off.
For hours, her family wanted to believe that, as a doctor, Tatiana was providing help among the rubble. But at the end of the day, her name appeared on the death toll. Since then, her daughter has repeated the same questions in her head: Why that bus? Why that street? Questions that will never be answered. The only thing that is certain is that with that call, a part of her life was also extinguished.
The missiles arrived minutes apart. There were two of them, enough to kill 35 people. Some were going to the theater, others to mass, others simply out for coffee. Like Tatiana, they were just there, in their city, on an ordinary Sunday. Among the victims were a driver, a teacher, a retired soldier, an entire family, students.
Dariya Loboda and Svitlana Shtepa, medical students, died together. They smiled in a mirror selfie, an image that now haunts the phones of those who knew them. "Light, kindness, authenticity," wrote their friend Nadia Taborovets. "Each of you was like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day, like a spring breeze carrying hope."
The city also lost Olena Kohut, violinist at the Sumi National Theater and organist of the regional Philharmonic. She was a teacher, artist, and admired colleague. "Her music and her smile will remain with us," the theater wrote. From Lviv, several musicians who knew her shared a video of her performing. Rheinberger. He was at the Philharmonic when the missile hit. He didn't survive.
A symbolic city
Sumi is a border town, known not only for its proximity to Russia, but also for urban legends from the 1990s and old stories of violence and loyalties. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, it became the first bastion in the path of the Russian army. It resisted, halted the enemy's advance, and helped protect Kiev's left bank.
Since last summer, with the start of the Kursk operation, the Sumi oblast—bordering the Russian regions of Belgorod and Kursk—has suffered a new and persistent wave of attacks. Drones, missiles, and guided aerial bombs cause increasingly severe damage to civilian infrastructure. Russian artillery also frequently manages to hit the region. Some of these bombardments have been so intense that they even horrify veteran soldiers from the Donetsk front: "Sometimes we think the drones in the city aren't that dangerous... until you visit Sumi. Here, the fear becomes real." Now, Sumi is marked by one of the greatest civilian tragedies of this war. The Palm Sunday attack is in line with other dark moments: the bombing of Vinnitsa in July 2022 (27 dead), the Kramatorsk train station (67 victims), or the residential building in Dnipro (46 dead).
In Ukraine, Palm Sunday is a deeply symbolic holiday. Willow branches—the so-called kotyky—and are taken to church. As part of tradition, loved ones are gently touched with the branches while saying, "It's not me hitting you, it's the willow branch; may it give you health and peace." This year, on social media, that image appears stained with blood. A neighbor of Sumi's recalled on Twitter how her former neighbor used to bless her with the bouquet every year. This time, she will no longer be able to do so. She died in the attack.
Mourning and outrage
The Easter spirit has been replaced by mourning. All of Ukraine mourns with Sumi. And that mourning is turning, once again, into outrage: criticism of Donald Trump, who called the attack a Russian mistake; rejection of the condolences of Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza, who days earlier had stated that killing Ukrainians "is psychologically difficult" for Russian soldiers, and that this is why the Kremlin is turning to ethnic minorities to swell its army. "Was it also difficult to aim the missiles at Sumi?" Ukrainians responded to X.
But even amid the pain, rage, and helplessness, voices calling for resistance persist. Yulia Payevska, a doctor who survived torture in Russian captivity, wrote: "My heart is ash. I ache for every victim of this war. Sometimes the pain is unbearable. I wonder: what does Russia really seek by killing civilians, torturing prisoners, and destroying cities? How to respond?" She proposes resisting with the simplest and most human of ways: "With breathing, with words, with a look, with irony. Because a person who manages to remain true to themselves in the midst of catastrophe becomes a source of light that never goes out, not even in the deepest darkness."
Trump blames Zelensky and Biden for the war
The day after Russia's massacre in the Ukrainian city of Sumi —which left at least 35 dead and more than 100 injured—US President Donald Trump avoided condemning Russia's actions. Instead, he blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his predecessor in the White House, Joe Biden, for starting the war: "President Zelensky and Joe Biden did a terrible job allowing this travesty [war] to happen," he wrote in a message to the messenger. However, he later clarified that "Putin should never have started" the war. According to the US leader, if he had won the 2020 elections—as he claims he did—the war "would never have happened," as there were "many ways to avoid it."
The message comes hours after the US network CBS broadcast an interview with Zelensky in which he invited Trump to visit Ukraine before agreeing to any pact with Moscow to end the war . "Please, before making any decisions or conducting any negotiations, come and see the people, civilians, combatants, hospitals, churches, children who are wounded or dead," he said on CBS's 60 Minutes program, in footage recorded before the massacre.
The Palm Sunday attack, in which a projectile hit a bus traveling through the city center, not only shocked the Ukrainian population but also called into question Trump's diplomatic efforts, as he had pledged to end the war in Ukraine on his first day in office. In fact, it was barely a month ago that Moscow and Kiev agreed with the United States to a 30-day truce on the country's energy infrastructure , a deal they have not honored. Trump, who has established himself as the negotiating figure between Kiev and Moscow, simply called the Russian attack a "mistake" by Putin. "They've told me they made a mistake," he said without giving details. "But I think it's a horrible thing."
