Dead children on streets of Sumy make a mockery of ceasefire
Twenty-one civilians killed after air strikes target residential areas, while promise of safe passage fails to materialise in Mariupol as refugee corridor is shelled
The Russians blew up children in Sumy on Monday night. Hours before allowing an evacuation of the city, Russian bombs rained down on residential blocks and houses. Twenty-one people died in the missile attack, including at least two children, their corpses discovered lying in the rubble, according to officials in Sumy.
Graphic photographs and videos posted on social media yesterday showed the bloody aftermath of the raid, with the bodies of at least two children clearly visible. They looked no more than six or seven years old.
By 10am local time yesterday (8am GMT), the evacuation of Sumy began along an agreed humanitarian corridor. Russian troops let out the first convoy, mostly made up of foreign students, which arrived safely in Poltava, 100 miles south. As the second convoy, carrying women, children and the elderly, set off from Sumy, a Russian column opened fire on a Ukrainian checkpoint. The convoy was halted although the region’s governor was confident the evacuation would be allowed to continue; the incident, he hoped, an isolated one.
There may have been a measure of respite for some but the Russian reign of terror largely continued unabated yesterday. Only Sumy’s evacuation – 5,000 civilians escaped yesterday – was allowed to go ahead by Russia’s forces.
In Mariupol, in south-east Ukraine, the promise of safe passage again failed to materialise. The city remains under siege, the water and power switched off, while the safe transit corridor agreed by Moscow came under Russian artillery fire, preventing 30 buses that had arrived in Mariupol from leaving. The missile strikes continued in the night and a six-yearold child, named locally as Tanya, died of dehydration, trapped under the rubble. “My heart is filled with pain and full of hatred for the Nazis who took our native Mariupol under siege,” said Vadim Boychenko, Mariupol’s mayor. “We cannot imagine how much suffering an innocent child had to endure. In the last minutes of her life she was alone, exhausted, frightened, terribly thirsty.
“A child died in Mariupol due to the blockade by the Russian occupiers. The cause of death was dehydration.”
Tanya’s mother had been killed in the shelling while a photograph released by a local Ukrainian MP showed the little girl, her eyes closed, lying dead in a T-shirt with a kitten on it. Tanya had not stood a chance.
Russia was accused of committing “genocide” in Mariupol. “The enemy has launched an attack heading exactly at the humanitarian corridor,” the defence ministry said on Facebook. The Russian army “did not let children, women and elderly people leave the city. Such actions are nothing other than a genocide,” said the Ukraine military.
Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretarygeneral, condemned the targeting of civilians trying to flee as “a war crime”.
Further awful stories were emerging from other Ukrainian cities under siege and under bombardment. In Bucha, north-west of Kyiv, and the scene of brutal fighting over almost a fortnight, the corpses lay where they had fallen, food for the stray dogs.
“We can’t even gather up the bodies because the shelling from heavy weapons doesn’t stop day or night,” said Anatol Fedoruk, Bucha’s mayor. “Dogs are pulling apart the bodies on the city streets. It’s a nightmare.”
Since the war started, 41 children have been killed, authorities in Ukraine said yesterday. The death toll is likely to rise sharply as Russia, frustrated by its lack of progress, is expected to use increasingly violent tactics in the hope of bombarding Ukraine into submission. In Kharkiv, scene of some of the most fierce missile attacks, officials said 27 civilians had been killed in 24 hours. An attempt to storm the city by Russian paratroopers was repelled, the regional governor said yesterday.
North of Kyiv, three adults were killed and three children wounded when a landmine exploded under their car, the first deaths in the conflict caused by an anti-personnel mine.
Bill Burns, the CIA’S director, yesterday warned of an “ugly next few weeks”. US intelligence suggests somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 Russian troops have been killed in the first 13 days of war.
Sumy’s residents will have gone to bed on Monday night, hoping their escape was imminent; their safe passage agreed after negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow.
Their dreams were short-lived. On Monday, Russian aircraft dropped bombs on houses in Sumy as families were packing up their belongings.
Ukraine said the Kremlin’s forces had dropped a 500kg bomb on a residential and commercial neighbourhood. A bomb that size landing in an urban area would, according to experts, cause devastation for hundreds of yards with blast waves travelling up to a mile and beyond.
Emergency workers and locals filmed the carnage: bodies contorted, limbs missing as snow fell in the darkness. By yesterday morning the extent of the horror was clear. Houses on and around one of the main roads into Sumy had been bombed to smithereens. Shops and businesses on the main boulevard were also destroyed.
At about 11pm local time (9pm GMT) eyewitness accounts said the Russian air force had bombed the city, just 30 miles from the border.
“Unfortunately, children are among those killed,” said Dmytro Zhyvytsky, head of the Sumy Regional Military Administration, in a post on Facebook. “The kids are being killed. We will never forgive this.”
On Telegram, Ukrainian rescue services said: “Enemy planes insidiously attacked apartment buildings.”
In a message on the Twitter account of the parliament of Ukraine, authorities said several houses in the north-eastern city, with a population of 250,000, were destroyed when Russian planes attacked. It was, said the parliament, a “crime against humanity”.
In the post, the authorities said: “Russian planes dropped bombs on Sumy. There are civilian casualties.
“The bombs hit residential areas of the city. Houses of civilians were demolished and damaged.
“This is a targeted attack on civilians. The Russian occupants saw what they were attacking.”
The children killed in the raid looked tiny, caked in rubble and lifeless.
Night-time footage showed houses burning to the ground, the orange flames leaping into the sky as residents wandered through the wreckage looking for survivors. Emergency workers clawed at the rubble and stretchered out bodies in the desperate search for survivors.
As the sun came up, the full extent of the devastation became visible. A swathe of the city had been destroyed.
Hours later Sumy became the first city to successfully begin an agreed evacuation, buses lining up to take fleeing civilians the 100-mile journey to Poltova. Some 20 to 30 private cars, packed with families and their belongings, also joined the convoy. Red crosses were stuck to the inside of the buses’ windscreens although the International Red Cross said it
‘In the last minutes of her life, this innocent child was alone, exhausted, frightened, terribly thirsty’
‘Dogs are pulling apart the bodies on the city streets. It’s a nightmare’
was not involved in the evacuation.
Mr Zhyvytsky said that the temporary ceasefire had held for the first convoy at least. As the initial wave of cars and buses left the city, they met around 160 Russian military vehicles coming towards them. The civilian convoy stopped to let the Russians pass and the encounter went without incident.
Among those on the convoy were foreign students, largely from India and China, who had been trapped in Sumy since the invasion launched 13 days ago. India and China both abstained in a UN vote condemning the Russian invasion.
Hardeep Puri, an Indian minister, said: “Last night, I checked with the control room, 694 Indian students were remaining in Sumy. Today, they have all left in buses for Poltava.”
Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, had on Monday discussed ways to kickstart the stalled evacuation with Mr Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president.
India had urged its citizens to get out while they could. In a message posted yesterday morning by India’s embassy in Kyiv, it said: “Considering the security situation, establishment of the next humanitarian corridor is uncertain. All stranded Indian nationals are urged to make use of this opportunity and evacuate using trains/ vehicles or any other available means of transport giving due consideration to safety.”
Previous attempts to lead civilians to safety had crumbled after Russian troops launched attacks on supposed safe corridors. Roads out of Mariupol, which also tried another attempt at evacuation yesterday had been mined.
“The Ukrainian city of Sumy was given a green corridor, the first stage of evacuation began,” the Ukrainian state communications agency announced on Twitter. Videos showed the buses moving off along the snowy road south.
It was estimated there were as many as 1,700 foreign students in Sumy
‘This is a targeted attack on civilians. The Russian occupants saw what they were attacking’
‘Civilians who want to leave the city are being shot. People sit without food, light, or water’
when Russia invaded. Many of those were trapped in hostels on Sumy State University’s campus, hiding in bomb shelters. Ukrainian soldiers had warned students who tried to leave to stay in the hostels and wait for the official evacuation convoy.
But with supplies of food and water running short some grew so desperate they made their own way out of the city in the past few days, paying as much as £1,220 to drivers willing to make the journey.
One medical student from India, who did not wish to be identified, confirmed the official evacuation had begun. “We have been told that we will go to Poltava. I am praying that we reach a safe zone and this misery is over,” he said.
Not everyone was going.
“I’m staying here. This is my home, this is where I was born, and I don’t want to leave my city,” said Liana, a 20-year-old student. “Every day, rockets hit civilians and homes. Two days ago there was an explosion at the power plants, and we were without water and electricity.”
Russian troops, she said, had “come to the villages, [to] rob shops, mock the inhabitants and act like fascists.
“Last night there were three explosions, and flying planes. I felt fear and saw the red sky over the explosion. Several houses were destroyed by the explosion, and at least two children were killed.”
She said she felt nothing but “disappointment and hatred” for the Russian invaders. Her city is “broken”, she said.
Alina Yagupa, 20, also a student, accused Russia of “ruthlessly bombing civilians, civilian infrastructure, and killing civilians”. She said:
“There are constant fights. It’s very scary. People are sitting in basements. Civilians who want to leave the city are being shot. People sit without food, light, or water.
“One of the residential areas of Sumy was bombed at night, 11 houses were burnt. I heard the attacks. It was like loud thunder and the walls shook. It is impossible to understand unless you hear it.”
The first convoys went without a hitch, reaching Poltava. But as the second wave started its journey out of the city, a Russian armoured convoy opened fire on a Ukrainian checkpoint.
Mr Zhyvytsky warned of the risks of remaining in Sumy and the risks of going. There were no easy choices for Sumy’s civilians.
“This incident has confirmed that there is no 100 per cent security in leaving the city,” he said in a Facebook post to residents. “Decide for yourselves whether it is more dangerous to stay or to leave.”