oNa relatives on a warm spring day gathered to say goodbye to Viktor Boiko and his wife, Olha. Their open ffin was placed next to the other. Victor was wearing his best suit. Orha was in a flowery blouse with carnations loaded around her slippery legs. The priest sang prayer. The grave dig lowered the couple to the ground and shoveled the earth above. It landed with a percussive sound.
“Give me a weapon, any weapon. I want to kill a butcher in Moscow,” said Victor’s brother-in-law Anatoly Plikodoko. “They killed so many people. Adults, children, peaceful citizens. If you lose a home or a car in the war, you can get it back.
On Sunday morning, Boykos was on his way to church to celebrate Palm on Sunday. Like most hard-up pensioners, they went by public transport. The ride fee is 8 Hryvnia (15p). Their bus, No. 62, was driving along Petropabrivska Street, in the heart of Smee in northeastern Ukraine. On either side there were elegant buildings belonging to Smee State University. It was 10:23am.
A Russian Iskander missile carrying cluster ammunition fell out of the sky and exploded next to the bus. A tsunami of rap shotguns involved boycos, other passengers and people on the streets walking past cafes and shops. The couple died instantly. Another missile struck a university conference center 200 metres away, punching a glass atrium and a balcony.
The rescuer saw an apocalyptic scene. The body lay spreading on the ground, the car burning and smoke swirling. The explosion took a hole in the university’s economics and business sector. From the 19th century Institute of Applied Physics, they blew windows and wooden doors across the road. The fragments flew around the laboratory’s garden, shredding tulips and roses. The spot was a popular backdrop for wedding photos.
On Tuesday, people visited the scene to lay flowers as firefighters sat on a shattered roof. “It was Palm Sunday, holidays, holidays,” explained Tetiana, a resident of Smee. “The weather has warmed recently and people have been on their way to church. Ukraine has a tradition of buying willow branches,” she added. “This is a great sadness for the entire city. We are sad. In my opinion, this is not an act of war. It is pure terrorism.”
Among the dead were two children. One was 11-year-old Maksym Martynenko, who passed away along with her parents, Mykola and Natalia. There were cute toys where he died, such as the bear and hippo. Someone left a plastic soccer with the words “On Max.” The organist Olena Kohut of Sumy’s Phhramonic Concert Hall was killed nearby on his way to rehearsal. Other victims were students, teachers, notaries and bus drivers.
Sammy is located just 16 miles (25km) from the Russian border. It is home to soldiers and civilians. Residents frequently attack drones and rocket attacks, and are used to constantly lament air sirens. But Sunday’s double tap strike was awful. It was the worst Russian attack of the year, leaving 35 dead and 129 injured. 11 people are in a critical state. They have 15 injured children.
Asked for his response, Donald Trump seemed to downplay the latest Russian atrocities and call them “mistakes.” He then denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and former US President Joe Biden, falsely claiming that they had “started” a war with Russia. Serhii Khvostov, head of Sumy’s corruption conference center, was not impressed. “Trump is wrong. This is an act of a stupid, angry Russian. There is no logic to it,” he said. “It’s easy to look away, but the world has to understand what’s going on here.”
Khvostov did a tour of the ruined building. The missile blew a 4-meter hole down the ground floor, reaching the basement, the community’s theatre space. The children’s show was scheduled to take place there at 11am just before the attack. Jagged pieces of the Iskander missile landed in a collection of dolls, including prepared sandwiches, costumes and Kermit, the dragon and frog. A large hole knocked down the black wall in the venue.
“It was a miracle that no one was killed,” Kubostov said. After hearing the explosion, he called for the centre’s older security guard. Without an answer, he ran to the building. The guard suffered a concussion, but was fine, dragging one of Khvostov’s colleagues out of the administration’s office and kicking him out of the broken window. The cleaner survived too. There was no one inside. Several people drinking coffee from a mobile kiosk were injured.
On Tuesday, staff wiped out the glass and ducked away the hanging ceiling. Khvostov’s office was a stunning mess. There was a broken computer and a desk, and it was safe to fall. “We can’t find the key,” he said. “It’s too early to say if we can rebuild this place, I hope so.” Outside, JCB digs scooped up a pile of trash cans into a truck. The tow truck was removed. Its owner, Tetiana, said, “My windows were blown away and my neighbor was hurt. I gave her a tourniquet.”
Volodymyr Niankin, the founder and director of the theater, said one of his friends was planning to leave Sumy for the attack. He said Niakin would stay to look after his ailing grandmother. Of Russian Presidents Trump and Vladimir Putin, he said: “I think they are stupid old men. They were representatives of the Cold War generation of the past, and it was just the US and the Soviet Union. Their plan is to divide the world between them.”
The Institute of Applied Physics had a cleanup going on. The volunteers put the flower beds down. The explosion damaged the chandelier in the lecture hall on the second floor, and damaged the charcoal portrait of Sami physicist hanging in the hallway. The whiteboard with the equation above survived unharmed. Next to the entrance, the quartz wall clock was stopped at the exact moment of impact: 10.23am and 40 seconds.
Senior researcher Serhii Lebedynskyi examined the destroyed office along with his wife, Yulia. The shelves of physics books were covered with thick layers of dust. The gorgeous plasterwork on the ceiling had disappeared. “We had planned to go to town with our little son on a Sunday morning. He decided he didn’t want to leave the house, which probably saved us. He added: “For over a decade, the Russians have been acting like terrorists.”
American volunteer Karl Earlgren said he knew exactly what they were doing when Russians fired two missiles into the crowded city centre. “What Trump says is brutal and merciless,” he said. “It’s clear that he’s listening to Russian propaganda. Is that coming from Vladimir Putin? [Trump’s special envoy] Steve Witkoff. There was no mistake here. The second strike was to kill the rescuer. ”
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian forces took the form of revenge. The country’s troops said it was successfully attacked at the headquarters of the Russian missile brigade, which is responsible for Sunday’s massacre. “[A base] A secondary explosion of ammunition has been recorded out of the 448th missile brigade of Russian occupying people. The outcome of the strike has been revealed,” he said in a statement.
Back at Sumy’s Cemetery, Gravedigger spoke with affection for Kohut, describing her as a talented and popular organist. “She was a friend of mine. She was a very democratic person. She treated everyone the same way, whether you were important or not,” Valerie Rodenko said. Rodenko said he had worked as a carpenter for seven years at the city’s Philharmonic Concert Hall. “I’ve come to know Olena well. She was a great person. She had a bright spirit,” he said.
He put down the spade and shed tears.
