Officials said Russian rocket attacks targeted Sumi, a northeastern Ukrainian city, killing at least three people and injuring 25 people. Vodimir President Zelenskyy condemned the attack, saying Moscow had no intention of stopping the Three Years’ War.
The attack took place the day after the end of the three-year war with direct peace talks in Istanbul. Local authorities said rockets hit apartment buildings and medical facilities in downtown Sumi.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s secret service company said they once again attacked Russia two days after Russia’s spectacular Ukrainian drones attacked air bases within the country.
The Ukrainian Security Agency is known for its acronym SBU, claiming that it damaged the foundations of the foundation connecting Russia to the illegally annexed Crimea, a key artery in Russian military supplies during the war.
SBU said it detonated 1,100 kilograms (2,400 pounds) of explosives overnight on the seabed, a surgery that took several months. The SBU said it was the third Ukrainian strike since Russia invaded its neighbors in February 2022.
“The bridge is now effectively in a state of emergency,” the SBU claimed.
It said no civilians were killed or injured in the operation. It is impossible to independently confirm the claim.
Russian official social media channels said traffic across the Kerchi Bridge was suspended for three hours but reopened at 9 a.m. It closed for the second time at 3:20 pm
Zelenskyy calls for pressure on Moscow
The Ukrainian president called the attack on Sumi a “completely intentional” strike against civilians.
“That’s all about Russia’s ‘wish’ ending this war,” the Ukrainian president wrote on social media.
Zelenskyy calls for global pressure and “decisive action by the United States, Europe and all who have power.” Without it, Russian President Vladimir Putin “did not even agree to the ceasefire.”
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According to the United Nations, the war killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, as well as the front line of about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) with thousands of soldiers on either side of the line, and efforts to lose the war continue, despite the efforts of our leadership to promote a peaceful deal.
Amazing Ukrainian drone attack
Ukrainian officials said that while Russia has a larger army and more economic resources than Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said Ukrainian drone attacks damaged or destroyed more than 40 fighter jets deep in Russia.
The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged that the Ukrainian attack caused several aircraft to burn on two air bases, but said the military had been attacked by attempted attacks on the other three air bases.
Both Zelenskyy and Putin are eager to show us President Donald Trump’s ambitions to end the fight – avoiding Washington’s punitive measures. Ukraine has accepted a ceasefire prescribed by the United States, but the Kremlin effectively rejected it. Putin made it clear that any peaceful settlement must be subject to his conditions.
Delegations of the warring parties agreed on Monday to exchange dead and wounded forces, but the terms of their end to the war remained far away.
Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president who is currently the deputy head of the National Security Council chaired by Putin, said on Tuesday that the Russian invasion would not disappoint.
“The negotiations in Istanbul are not about strike peace in other people’s delusional terms, but about ensuring our rapid victory and total destruction (the Ukrainian government)” he said.
In an obvious comment on Ukraine’s latest strike, he declared that “retribution is inevitable.”
Moscow says
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov answered the suggestion that a face-to-face meeting between Putin, Trump and Zelensky could undermine the deadlock, saying the possibility is “not likely in the near future.”
Meanwhile, a senior Ukrainian delegation led by First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yuliia Svyrydenko has traveled to Washington to negotiate on defense, sanctions and post-war recovery, said Andrii Yermak, head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office.
Yermak added that the delegation will meet with representatives from major U.S. parties and Trump’s advisers.
Ukrainians in Kiev welcomed strikes on Russian air bases but were frustrated by the prospects of a peace deal.
“Russia invested so much resources in this war that…get nothing,” said Oleh Nikolenko, a 43-year-old waiter.
His wife, Anastasia Nikolenko, a 38-year-old designer, said diplomacy cannot stop the fight. “We need to use force to show strongly that we cannot be defeated,” she said.
Russia has recently expanded its attacks on Sumi and Kharkif regions after Putin’s pledge to establish a buffer zone at the border could prevent Ukrainian attacks from attacking Russian soil. Sumy is about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the border, with a population of about 250,000 before the war.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claims that its troops have taken the Ukrainian village Andriivka, near the border of the Sumi region. Ukraine did not immediately comment on the claim, which could not be independently verified.
Russia also launched rocket artillery troops in the village of Chystovodivka in the Kharkiv region, killing two people and injuring three people, said the governor of Russia.
