AT LEAST 21 people been killed and dozens more wounded in a bloody Russian missile attack on the city centre of Sumy, north-east Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelensky branded Putin a “b***ard” for the timing of the attack, which came on the holy Palm Sunday.

Zelensky said: “A terrible Russian ballistic missile strike on Sumy.

“And this is on a day when people go to church: Palm Sunday […] Only b***ards can do this.”

Casualty figures currently stand at 21 dead and 83 wounded.

At least five children are thought to be amongst the dead.

Grieving relatives were seen weeping over the bodies of their loved ones lying in the street.

The country’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiga condemned the attack as a “war crime”.

He said: “We are already sharing detailed information about this war crime with all our partners and international institutions.

“We call on all capitals and headquarters to respond decisively.

“For the second month in a row, Russia refuses to accept the US proposal for a complete ceasefire, which Ukraine unconditionally accepted on March 11.

“Instead, Russia is intensifying terror.”

Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff, said: “The Russians hit the city of Sumy with missiles, killing civilians.”

Andriy Kovalenko, a disinformation security official, noted the strike’s timing after the visit of US envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow.

He said: “Russia is building all this so-called diplomacy […] around strikes on civilians.”

Witkoff held talks with Putin on Friday in St. Petersburg about the peace process, after Trump warned Russia to “get moving”.

Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, said: “Sumy. Day off. A major religious holiday for Ukrainians is Palm Sunday.

“The day when Ukrainian families go to churches, walk around the city with their children.

“And it was on this day that Russia launched another missile strike on a peaceful city.”

Anatoliy Fedoruk, the  mayor of Bucha – destroyed earlier in the war by Putin’s forces – said: “A racist missile hit right in the heart of Sumy. Dozens killed.

“The city centre was turned into a bloody landscape. Continuous terror. They don’t stop.

“Another day when a terrorist state exists on the map. Each such strike is yet another proof: Russia is incapable of existing alongside the civilised world.

“Only pain, destruction, and death — that’s its essence.”

Russian state media claimed the attack targeted a “concentration of soldiers” in Sumy, but there was no evidence of a military presence.

Other outlets claimed the strike was staged by Ukrainian air defences.

The Palm Sunday attack comes a week on from Russian rocket strikes on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv – which Zelensky said breached the naval ceasefire.

The Ukrainian president said the missiles were fired from Russian ships stationed in the Black Sea last Sunday after warning that Moscow was stepping up its aerial attacks.

Witkoff’s meeting with Putin on Friday lasted more than four hours, with the Kremlin reporting as focus on “aspects of Ukrainian settlement”.

It was the US envoy’s third head-to-head with Putin this year, but took place amid growing frustration from Trump over Russia’s delay tactics.

Trump this week specifically criticised Russia’s bombing campaign against Ukraine – which has intensified in recent weeks.

During his Monday Oval Office meeting with Bejamin Netenyahu, Trump said: “I’m not happy about what’s going on with the bombing because they’re bombing like crazy right now.”

And last Sunday he said again: “I don’t like the bombing.”

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