Russian guided bombs hit Sumy school during classes; two killed, children among wounded
On 29 September 2026, Russian forces struck the city of Sumy with guided aerial bombs, one of which hit a school in the Zarichnyi district where classes were in session. Children and staff were sheltering at the time; about 100 people were evacuated and no injuries were reported at the school. Two people were killed in their homes in the private residential sector, and multiple children were among the wounded. President Zelenskyy condemned the attack and called on Ukraine's international partners to increase pressure on Russia.
Key points
- On 29 September 2026, Russian forces struck Sumy with guided aerial bombs (KABs); sources differ on whether three or four were used.
- One bomb hit a school in the Zarichnyi district during classes; about 100 people were evacuated from the building.
- About 40 students were sheltering in the school's basement at the time of impact; no children or staff at the school were reported injured.
- Two civilians were killed in their homes in the private residential sector.
- Reported injuries rose through the day — from an initial six (including three children) to nine (including three children) per the State Emergency Service, with one source later reporting twelve injured.
- The injured children in the private sector were aged 3, 6 and 15, with one source separately citing a one-year-old.
- The school building was heavily damaged — windows blown out, walls and roof destroyed; at least seven private homes and a trolleybus were also damaged.
- President Zelenskyy condemned the strike, thanked staff for the timely evacuation, and urged the US, Europe and other partners to exert real pressure on Russia.
Why it matters
The strike hit a functioning school in central Sumy during a school day, putting hundreds of children at direct risk and underscoring the protection failures for civilian infrastructure in northern Ukraine. With two civilians killed in their homes and multiple children wounded, the attack adds to a pattern of daily strikes on Sumy — the city had already been hit by KABs on 26 and 27 September — and gives Kyiv fresh grounds to press its partners for tougher measures against Moscow.
What happened
On the afternoon of Tuesday, 29 September 2026 — explosions in Sumy were heard around 16:00 local time — Russian forces struck the city with guided aerial bombs. Most sources reported three KABs and several reported four; one bomb, described by the Sumy city military administration head as a 250-kilogram aerial bomb, hit a school in the Zarichnyi district where classes were in session. About 40 students were in the school's basement shelter at the moment of impact, and roughly 100 people — children and staff combined — were evacuated in time. The school building was severely damaged, with windows blown out and walls and the roof destroyed, but no injuries were reported among pupils or staff at the school. Other bombs struck the city's private residential sector: two civilians were killed in their homes, and initial reports from the head of the Sumy Oblast Military Administration Oleh Hryhorov and from President Zelenskyy put the number of wounded at six, including three children. The State Emergency Service (DSNS) later raised the figure to nine injured, including three children; one source later reported twelve injured. Sumy Oblast police said the injured children in the private sector were aged 3, 6 and 15; the head of the Sumy city military administration separately mentioned a one-year-old among the wounded. At least seven private homes and a trolleybus on the territory of a communal enterprise were damaged, and additional strikes hit a city cemetery. Rescue services extinguished fires at three addresses simultaneously, and a body was recovered from under the rubble of a house.
Where reporting differs
Sources do not agree on the number of KABs used: most report three, several report four. Reported casualty figures also changed through the day — Zelenskyy and the OVA head initially reported six injured including three children; the State Emergency Service later put the figure at nine including three children, and one source later reported twelve injured. The age profile of the wounded children is described differently across sources: Sumy Oblast police listed ages 3, 6 and 15, while the head of the Sumy MVA separately mentioned a one-year-old among the injured.
Background
Sumy had already come under repeated Russian bombardment in the days before the 29 September strike. On 26 September, three KABs hit central Sumy, killing two people and injuring 23, including four children. On 27 September, another three KABs struck the city, killing an elderly woman and a 16-year-old girl and wounding five people including one child. On 28 September, a Russian jet-powered drone struck the National Academy of Sciences building in central Kyiv, killing two people. Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi noted that Russian strikes were continuing 'almost continuously' across most Ukrainian oblasts, including Kyiv, Odesa, Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Volyn, Rivne, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Sumy.