Shelling tragedy: Outrage over suspect ceremony location in Sumy

During the Sunday shelling of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine, a ceremony honouring Ukrainian military personnel was ongoing in the basement of a local university. This information was reported by the "Washington Post," citing the account of a Ukrainian soldier named Oleksandr.

During the attack, in which 35 civilians were killed and over 100 were injured, Oleksandr attended the ceremony in the university basement. At the time, his wife and children were walking down the street, and his adopted daughter was injured. The soldier expressed outrage over the organization of the event in a location that could become a target of a Russian attack.

Oleksandr emphasized that organizing such an event in Sumy, which is regularly shelled, was irresponsible. He suggested that the Russians might have intercepted information about the ceremony or been informed by a local collaborator. The soldier, who recently fought in the Russian Belgorod region, was concerned that he was summoned to the ceremony instead of being on the battlefield.

"I don't need these medals or diplomas," said Oleksandr from the hospital where his adopted daughter is staying. After the attack, a fragment and a piece of bone were removed from her lung.

On Tuesday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time, Taras Melnychuk, a representative of the cabinet of ministers in the Ukrainian parliament, announced the dismissal of Volodymyr Artiukh from his position as head of the Sumy regional administration. Earlier, the mayor of the city of Konotop, Artem Semenihin, revealed that Artiukh organized the ceremony to present awards to soldiers of the 117th Independent Territorial Defence Brigade.

Artiukh admitted that he attended the event but emphasized that he was not its organizer. "It wasn't my initiative. I was invited," he stated in a conversation with correspondents from the Ukrainian portal Suspilne.