Putin's Easter missile raid targets cake factory and injures children

Vladimir Putin’s latest Easter onslaught on Ukraine included an attack on a cake factory.

Further devastation hit the city of Sumy on Friday morning with an attack on a factory baking Easter treats that led to one person being killed and another injured,.

The head of Sumy district state administration Mykhailo Melnyk said in an update on Facebook,‘Around 5 am,the enemy struck a UAV type ‘Shahed’ on the pastry shop [in Sumy]. Damaged production of Easter cakes.

One man was killed in an attack on a cake factory (Credit: @SocialSumy/Telegram)

‘The entrepreneur who came for the products was killed. An employee of a confectionery shop sought medical attention.’

The man was said to be collecting traditional ‘paska’ sweet bread,a sweet treat popular at family gatherings in Ukraine.

The attack on Sumy follows another strike on Palm Sunday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said was ‘right in the heart of the city’.

It killed 34 people,including two children and injured 117 others.

A recent attack in Sumy killed over 30 people (Credit: SocialSumy/Telegram)

One ballistic missile and 5 Iskander-K cruise missiles were launched in the overnight attacks,according to reporting in the Odessa Journal.

A further ’37 Shahed-type attack UAVs and decoy drones of other types’ were launched as the regions of Kyiv,Kharkiv,Sumy,Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv were all affected.

In the week before Easter,Russia is carrying out a terrible terror in Ukraine. Mass murders of civilians,cluster munition strikes on residential quarters…Last night they bombed a factory where Ukrainians were baking Easter cakes. People bring these cakes to church on… pic.twitter.com/jn6y1pinEe

— Денис Казанський (@den_kazansky) April 18,2025

A total of 87 people,including six children,are reported to have been injured in an overnight strike in Kharkiv,which was carried out with Russian ballistic missiles equipped with cluster munitions,authorities said. One person was killed.

A Ukrainian source accused Russia of ‘deliberately launching shrapnel missiles to cause as many casualties and injuries as possible’.

A woman gazes through a damaged apartment building window in Kharkiv following Putin’s latest barrage (Credit: Andrii Marienko/ AP)

The casualty figures come from the Mayor of Kharkiv Ihor Terekhov,who wrote on the messaging app Telegram that the ‘number of victims is increasing almost every hour’.

Terekhov said that the type of weapon used pointed towards the extent of the damage. Estimates said at least 30 houses,20 apartment buildings and an educational institution were all damaged. A fire also broke out,covering 450 square metres.

Kharkiv,Ukraine’s second city and close to the Russian border,is a frequent target for attacks from the air.

US patience wearing thin,Trump administration says

Russia wants a halt in Western arms supplies to Ukraine and a pause in Ukrainian mobilisation efforts. Such demands have been rejected by Ukraine.The strikes come as Russia continues to refuse a comprehensive ceasefire pushed by the US and endorsed by Ukraine.The Trump administration has indicated a frustration in the lack of progress in this area with secretary of state Marco Rubio stating the US could ‘move on’ from efforts to secure a peace deal.Following a day of landmark talks with European,US and Ukrainian officials in Paris,Mr Rubio said the US is ‘reaching a point where we need to decide whether this is even possible or not’.Further reports say an Iskander-M ballistic missile was used to attack Kharkiv. Iskander-M ballistic missiles can fly at a range of up to 310 miles and a velocity of 2,000 metres a second.Tower block resident Inna Mazurova said: ‘We woke up to explosions. I can’t say anything right now,because I’m so emotional.‘I don’t have a room on this side of the building any more,everything was blown out. The ceiling was blown off,and the door. I had a glass door,and it was shattered. The blast wave shattered the aquarium,the whole apartment was in the water.’