Artem Semenikhin, the mayor of the Sumy Oblast city Konotop, accused regional Governor Volodymyr Artiukh of planning an awards ceremony for the 117th Brigade in Sumy on April 13 — the same day Russia launched a devastating ballistic missile attack on the city center.
The event posed undue risk to civilians and military personnel, Semenikhin claimed.
Russia attacked the northeastern city of Sumy with ballistic missiles on the morning of Palm Sunday, killing at least 34 people and injuring at least 117 others. Children were among the victims.
Artiukh "helped (Russia) justify their terrorist attack, a genocidal attack on us, Ukrainians," Seminikhin said in a video posted to Facebook.
"How did he help? He organized the presentation of certificates and medals to our guys, heroes, here today. From one of the brigades, the 117th brigade. Everyone is talking about it, everyone is writing about it, so it is not a secret."
The large gathering of soldiers created a pretense for Russia to attack a "military gathering," Semenikhin said, while needlessly exposing nearby civilians. Semenikhin clarified that the soldiers were not injured and only civilians were harmed by the Russian strike.
Russia's primary target was civilians, Semenikhin said, particularly children. The second target was Ukraine's military.
"I was happy to learn that a criminal case has been opened not only for the terrorist genocidal attack by the butchers against Ukrainians, but also that a case has been opened to find out who thought of holding events with a gathering of military personnel in the city center 30 kilometers from the butchers," he said.
Semenikhin also claimed that the head of Ukraine's Security Service (SBU), Vasyl Maliuk, was maintaining tight control over news of the planned ceremony.
The Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainiska Pravda reported that its sources confirmed the awards ceremony honoring the 117th Brigade was scheduled to take place in Sumy the morning of April 13. One source said two soldiers they knew personally had arrived for the ceremony and were waiting for it to begin when the missiles struck.
The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify these claims at the time of publication.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
(Updated: )
