President Trump has said Russia’s deadly missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy was “a mistake,” calling it a “horrible thing” even as members of his administration went further with condemnation that served as a rare critique of Moscow while the White House is pushing for a cease-fire.
Two ballistic missiles killed at least 35 people and injured more than 100 in Sumy on Sunday morning. The attack was the second in just over a week to inflict heavy civilian casualties in Ukraine, which Kyiv has said shows that Moscow is not truly interested in a truce.
“I think it was terrible. And I was told they made a mistake. But I think it’s a horrible thing,” Mr. Trump said about the Sumy attack when he was aboard Air Force One on Sunday.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, told the Kommersant newspaper on Monday that Moscow had targeted “a get-together of Ukrainian military chiefs with their Western counterparts” in Sumy. He declined to comment on the civilian deaths.
Ukraine’s military did not say whether any service members were killed in the attack, and several videos of the aftermath showed only casualties in civilian clothes. But Ukrainian news media, citing local military officials, reported that Col. Yuriy Yula, a commander in the 27th Brigade, had died in Sumy.
It was not immediately clear what Mr. Trump meant when he said he had been “told” Russia “made a mistake” — a formulation that could also be interpreted as an attempt to make excuses for Moscow. Mr. Trump has generally avoided criticizing President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia since taking office in January.