Russia's strike on Sumy: Attempt to push Kyiv to halt peace talks

Why? Two ballistic missiles were launched one after another, just 3–4 minutes apart, with cluster munitions specifically designed to inflict the highest possible number of civilian casualties.

The recent missile attacks on Kryvyi Rih and Sumy have no tactical or strategic military value. The perpetrators were guided by a psychological objective.

The goal is to provoke mass hysteria and a desire for vengeance. Anger and hatred are natural and understandable emotions for Ukrainians in this moment, and these feelings are now actively circulating through channels of communication — emotional conversations, posts, and comments online.

This creates an extremely tense atmosphere of public pressure on the government, which, under such circumstances, may be forced to adopt a hardline and uncompromising stance — particularly when it comes to negotiations with Putin and Russia.

I may be wrong, but here's one interpretation worth considering: Russia and Putin would prefer that the initiative to disrupt the peace process come directly from the Ukrainian side.

To achieve that, they aim to push Ukraine into a state of emotionally driven refusal — in other words, to recreate the “Bucha effect,” which led to the collapse of the Istanbul negotiations. Emotionally devastating events are meant to force President Zelenskyy and his administration to yield to a wave of public outrage and adopt rhetoric focused on revenge, completely ruling out any hint of peace talks.

This theory would only hold water if a U.S.-backed ceasefire track genuinely exists and if, by April 20, a concrete cessation of hostilities is actually being planned. Many remain skeptical about that possibility.

As for Konotop Mayor Artem Semenikhin’s accusations against the head of the Sumy Regional Military Administration, Volodymyr Artyukh, and MP Maryana Bezuhla’s claims regarding military alignments — more information will surface, and it will then be possible to clarify the situation calmly and without emotional overreaction.

Experience shows that drawing conclusions based solely on individual accusations or emotional outbursts is a poor practice. The victims cannot be brought back. But accountability must follow if the facts presented by Bezuhla or Mayor Semenikhin are verified.

Source

About the author: Oleh Posternak, political technologist and consultant, member of the Association of Professional Political Consultants of Ukraine.

The editorial team does not always share the opinions expressed by blog authors.