SUMY, Ukraine (AP) 鈥 The humdrum of daily life in Sumy belies the constant threat of death its people have lived with since Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago.
Days after Russia targeted the city’s center in , killing 35 people and injuring more than 100 others in the deadliest attack on Ukrainian civilians this year, neighbors gossiped in front of their apartment block as children played soccer in the courtyard. They paused to look up only when hearing the buzzing of attack drones and familiar thud of Ukrainian air defenses before resuming what they were doing.
Sumy is only about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the border of Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian soldiers are defending the last sliver of territory they took in a surprise offensive last summer. Residents say there has been an uptick in attacks on Sumy in recent weeks, though none as bloody as Sunday’s airstrike, which targeted a busy intersection.
The attack in Sumy, which had a prewar population of about 250,000, came just over a week after a Russian missile strike , including nine children, in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih. Russia said it was targeting a meeting of soldiers, but there is no evidence to support the claim.
The attacks on their cities has left many Ukrainians wondering where the next will occur and cast a shadow over the being brokered by the United States. The talks have produced only muted results, as Russia insists on conditions Ukraine deems impossible and Kyiv believes Moscow’s forces are .
The attack ended some lives and shattered others
To the people of Sumy, the talks seem far-removed from their daily struggles.
As some of the victims of Sunday’s attack were laid to rest on Tuesday, Viktor Voitenko, 56, described how he ended up paralyzed in a hospital bed. He was working as a security guard when the second missile hit and shattered his spine. As he spoke, his wife Hanna, 40, lovingly applied his deodorant 鈥 a simple act he could no longer perform.
Mention of the ceasefire negotiations conjured a weary smile from her. 鈥淚t鈥檚 empty talks. They don鈥檛 move anywhere. It seems to be public relations to me,鈥 Hanna Voitenko said. 鈥淣othing happens to bring comfort to regular people.鈥
Her husband offered his own take: 鈥淭hey are stalling for time.鈥
Work, errands and planned family visits brought the victims of Sunday鈥檚 attack to the intersection of Petropavlivska Street and the state university on Sunday morning.
Asia Pohorila, 20, was working at a cafe and thinking about whether to buy pastries after her shift when the first missile strike left her in shock and bleeding profusely from her legs. On Tuesday, the times 鈥10:20鈥 and “10:23” were still scrawled in marker on her thighs, noting when medics applied tourniquets to them.
A teen springs into action
Maryna Illiashenko and her 13-year old son, Kyrylo, heard the sound of that first blast ricochet across the center city as they waited for a bus.
They were headed to visit his grandmother, but the teenager was more excited about wrestling practice later that afternoon. Undeterred, they boarded the bus when it arrived a few minutes later. One stop later, the second missile crashed a few feet from the vehicle, scorching nearby cars, burning passengers alive, killing the bus driver and causing shrapnel to rain down. Three fragments tore through Kyrylo鈥檚 scalp and scratched Maryna鈥檚 face.
Enveloped in smoke and debris, the teen leaped out of the shattered bus window and pried open the locked door from outside, saving half a dozen trapped passengers, witnesses said.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to think about this as a new type of reality for Sumy city. We can clearly see that our frontline cities are being erased,鈥 Oleh Strilka, a spokesperson for the city’s State Emergency Service, said while standing outside the collapsed facade of the university building, where the second missile struck.
鈥淭he most painful thing for me is our children. Why do they need to suffer?鈥 he asked. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want our 13-year-old kids becoming heroes.鈥
Liudmyla Shelukhina, 70, was waiting in a neighbor鈥檚 house for a haircut. She was standing in line in the kitchen when the windows suddenly shattered.
She said the fridge she was next to saved her life. 鈥淚 would have been decapitated.”
鈥淒on鈥檛 be so dramatic,鈥 joked her husband, Viktor, a former soldier. Their son was hospitalized in the attack.
No relief for first responders
Rescue workers like Dmytro Shevchenko, 31, have to be prepared to head to the scene of the next attack at all times. He was among the first to arrive at the university grounds on Sunday. Most people he found were too badly injured to help, he said, wiping away tears.
He holds on to little hope that ceasefire talks will bear fruit. 鈥淚 just don鈥檛 believe in it,鈥 he said.
The children鈥檚 hospital where Kyrylo Illiashenko is recovering bears the scars of repeated drone attacks. More than 100 windows were shattered only two weeks ago when a massive drone attack struck nearby, said Chief Dr. Ihor Zmislya.
As workers cleared rubble from the sites of the missile strikes Tuesday and Kyrylo expounded on his favorite computer games, an explosion sounded in the distance. From the teen’s hospital window, plumes of smoke could be seen rising from a nearby railway line.
鈥淭his is our reality,鈥 said Zmislya. 鈥淚t happens all the time.鈥
