The rocket attack on Sumy is dismissed by Putin’s state media as a “staging”. The European Community sharply condemns the incident.
Moscow/Sumy – Russian state television has the rocket attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy, in which at least 34 people were killed and injured 117 on Sunday (April 13), described as “staged provocation”. Pro-Kremlin media explicitly accused German and Western media of operating a “classic German propaganda” in the context of the Ukraine war in order to discredit Russia.
Russia’s state TV: Putin’s chief propagandist calls an attack on Sumy “set”
During the program Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov the state faithful moderator and chief propagandist from President Vladimir Putin claimed Wladimir Solowjow that the attack was a “traditional attempt by the Ukrainian authorities to sabotage negotiations”.
He also threw off the foreign radio German wave before spreading “classic German propaganda” together with British media. “When you read German wave, the impression arises that the classic German propaganda (…) tries to stage another butcha,” said Solowjow with cynical reference to the massacre of Butscha, a symbol of Russian war crimes to this day. Margarita Simonjan, editor -in -chief of Russia Today, supports this presentation according to the exile medium Moscow Times And explained that Ukraine and the West would “create another butcha to extend the war”
Rocket attack on Sumy: also children among the dead and injured
Loud Daily show Two Russian rockets met the city center of Sumy, just 30 kilometers from the Russian border, on Palm Sunday, an important Christian holiday. There are two children among the dead, and 15 other children were injured. Eyewitnesses described panic, burning cars and rescue workers, the corpses are highlighted under ruins. A destroyed overhead line bus and a university building were among the goals hit
The EU Foreign Minister, including Annalena Baerbock, condemned The attack sharp. Baerbock called him a proof that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin “wants to destroy Ukraine”. Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Késtutis Budrys spoke, according to the Daily showfrom a “war crime by definition”, since strumunition against civilians had been used.
The Russian Ministry of Defense denied responsibility for civilian victims and claimed that two Iskander M rockets had hit a meeting of Ukrainian commanders in which more than 60 soldiers were killed. The news agency reported that Reuters. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskow emphasized according to the Moscow Times: “Our army only attacks military goals.” At the same time, Moscow accused Kiev of abusing the civilian population as a “human protective shield” – a repeated rhetoric that is considered part of the Russian disinformation strategy by independent observers.
Trump shocked with statements about Russian rocket attack on Sumy
US President Donald Trump also reacted contradictory. Although he called the attack a “terrible thing”, it indicated that Russia probably “made a mistake“, Writes the New York Times. His statement that he was “informed that it was a mistake,” remained vague and triggered criticism. U.N.-General Secretary António Guterres, however, was “deeply shocked”.
The Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj asked Trump to personally visit the destruction in Sumy and explained, so The Moscow Times: “Only a completely insane scum can do something like that. “
The Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski threw according to the Daily show Putin before “mocking” the good will of the United States, while French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot Putin had to undermine the peace process and called for “the toughest sanctions” against Russia.
Sumy as an example of Russia’s tactics in the Ukraine War?
Sumy attacked Sumy just two days after a meeting of Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff with Putin in St. Petersburg, which was part of ongoing ceasefire talks. Solowjow suggested in the state TV that the Ukraine had provoked the attack in order to undermine the negotiations: “Putin speaks for four hours to a representative of Trump-and immediately something happens. Traditionally, it was a Ukrainian air defense rocket that hit the wrong goal,” said the propagandist’s narrative.
Analysts like CnnCommentator Nick Paton Walsh see this a classic tactic of Moscow: Through targeted disinformation and the creation of parallel diplomatic “dialogues”, Russia gain time to build military pressure. “Putin relies on wear and tear – both on the front and in the minds of the western public,” said Walsh.
The discrepancy in the number of victims – Ukrainian sources call 34 dead, Reuters Already 35, while Russian bodies deny civilian victims completely – underlines the propaganda battle for the narrative of the war. While the EU speaks of clear war crimes, Moscow insists on its version of “targeted military operation”.
