World leaders have condemned Sunday's Russian attack on Sumy, which took at least 34 lives and injured over 100.
Now, the Russian Defense Ministry claims that the missiles were targeted at commanders who were holding a military meeting. Ukraine is also accused of using civilians as "human shields".
Church damaged
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitrij Peskov uses similar rhetoric at Monday's press conference.
Our army is only attacking military and military-related targets, he says.
The claims differ from Ukraine's description of the incident. In the attack, university premises, residential buildings, shops, and a church were damaged, according to local authorities. Most of those killed were civilians, including two children.
However, it is true that a ceremony for Ukrainian soldiers was held in the Sumy region at the time of the attack, according to, among others, Atrem Semenichin, mayor of Konotop in Sumy, in an interview with Ukrainian Pravda, reports BBC.
"None of the soldiers were injured, they were all in bomb shelters", writes Pravda.
Effective talks?
Peskov says at the press conference that the weekend's talks between President Vladimir Putin and Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump's envoy, were "extremely useful and effective".
The talks aim to achieve a ceasefire in Russia's over three-year-long war of aggression against Ukraine. According to the Kremlin, they constitute a channel through which Putin and Trump can exchange information.
