American chaplain Karl Ahlgren had just finished speaking at a Ukrainian church in the eastern city of Kramatorsk on Palm Sunday when he heard the news. Two Russian ballistic missiles had torn through the northeastern city of Sumy in the deadliest attack this year.
The first strike demolished a university building where Ahlgren had prayed with 20 local pastors eight days earlier. He said it was a miracle that only three people were in the building and everyone survived. Close to 60 adults and children were scheduled to arrive an hour later.
But less than five minutes later, a second ballistic missile loaded with cluster munitions designed to increase casualties struck one of the city’s busiest streets.
This time, more than 100 people were injured, and 35 died, including Mykola and Natalia Martynenko and their 11-year-old son, Maksym, who were walking to New Generations Church three blocks away. Natalia served on the worship team, and Mykola helped with the church’s ministry to locals struggling with addiction.
“I just felt this calling to go back,” Ahlgren said. “Relationships matter, and as a Christian, it’s important that we are available when the Lord needs us to go.”
He packed his bags and made the 250-mile trip to Sumy the next day. Two days later, he spoke at the family’s funeral. He didn’t know the Martynenko family and had never delivered a message at a funeral. Still, he accepted the invitation to share words of encouragement to a community struggling to make sense of the tragedy.
One moment in particular stood out to Ahlgren. After the funeral, he approached the son’s best friend, who was standing next to the open casket with tears streaming down his face.
“I told him when I was his age, I had lost a close friend,” Ahlgren said. “He gave me the biggest hug. I mean, he didn’t let go.”
Russia has launched a series of deadly attacks against Ukrainian population centers in recent weeks—the worst in months. The assaults killed close to 400 civilians in March and April, according to the United Nations human rights office.
A Russian missile struck a playground and apartment buildings in Kryvyi Rih in early April, killing 20, including 9 children. An attack on Kyiv at the end of the month killed 12 people.
President Donald Trump called the attack on Sumy a “horrible thing” but suggested the Kremlin may not be targeting civilians. He claimed he “was told they made a mistake.”
He spoke more forcefully after the attack on Kyiv. “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing,” he posted on social media in a rare rebuke to Russia. “Vladimir, STOP!”
Vice President JD Vance echoed Trump’s frustration on Wednesday, saying the Russians are “asking for too much” in negotiations to end the war—a sign that Washington may begin shifting sympathies away from the Kremlin. Trump recently approved the transfer of a Patriot air-defense system from Israel to Ukraine, according to The New York Times.
Trump initiated talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin more than two months ago, but the Russian leader has repeatedly rejected calls for a 30-day ceasefire. Over the weekend, European leaders threatened sanctions unless the Kremlin accepted Trump’s proposal, but Putin ignored them and instead suggested direct talks in Turkey on Thursday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed and challenged the Russian leader to meet him there personally. Putin has refused to meet with the Ukrainian president since the full scale war began in 2022. Their only face-to-face meeting was in 2019.
Meanwhile, the attacks haven’t stopped.
Drone strikes hit Kyiv, killing a mother and son, and Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, injuring at least 47 people.
“There were not and could not be any military targets,” Zelensky posted after the strike on Kharkiv. “Russia is hitting residential buildings at the very time when Ukrainians are at home, when they are putting their children to bed. Only tyrants can give such orders and carry them out.”
Putin wanted a cease-fire—but on his own terms. He called for a three-day pause in fighting while Russians celebrated the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with military parades from May 8 to 10.
Zelensky rejected the Kremlin’s proposal and told reporters in Kyiv the cease-fire was a “theatrical performance.” He said the 30-day cease-fire proposed by the United States was possible “even starting today” if the Kremlin would accept the terms.
Last week, Ukraine launched two overnight drone attacks on Moscow and initiated dozens of other strikes in regions across Russia, temporarily shutting down more than ten airports. Russia accused Ukraine of killing civilians in the attacks but did not provide evidence to support the claims.
The assaults created an atmosphere of nervousness as the Kremlin prepared to welcome international heads of state for Victory Day celebrations that doubled as a show of Russian force. Chinese and Russian soldiers marched alongside each other and the Kremlin paraded Iranian-made drones and its own weaponry together through the streets.
Sumy resident Anna Ulanovska worries Putin could use a temporary cease-fire as a way to rearm and recalibrate his offensive in Ukraine. “The common opinion is that nobody can trust him,” she said about Putin. “We should not be deceived. He wants the whole of Ukraine.”
She hears constant shelling in the morning and during the night and sometimes hears Ukrainian fighter jets.
“It’s scary to hear all this shelling,” said Ulanovska, a member of a Pentecostal church called Christ for Everyone. “Our region is under attack again.”
Her son is a first grader in a small Christian school that meets in the church basement, a common alternative to bomb shelters. Her 14-year-old daughter attends classes virtually like most of the children in Sumy since Ukraine’s Kursk operation last summer.
She knew the Martynenko family. Maksym had attended a local summer camp where she served as a volunteer.
“Nobody has a right to hit the city center on Palm Sunday,” she said. “Who could do this?”
Now the attacks seem relentless. A May 6 missile strike on a Sumy suburb less than 2 miles from Ulanovska’s home killed three people, including a child. Ulanovska said the beginning of the full-scale war in 2022 was a shock for many Christians. She could see the Russian tanks from her home.
She has theological questions about the loss of life, but as the attacks have increased again, she’s drawn encouragement from Scripture.
“I think that God in the Bible didn’t promise that everything would be smooth and perfect during our lifetime,” Ulanovska said. “He warned that we would have some troubles, trials, and tribulations.”
She didn’t fully understand this concept before the war, she said. But she notes God has since given her a peaceful sense of his protective hand even as she sees danger and death around her.
Ahlgren said he hopes Americans won’t forget Ukraine.
“I talked to frontline soldiers, and I talked to everyday citizens, and they are tired and feel betrayed, but they will never quit,” he said. “For the administration to continue to basically look the other way while Putin and his military are targeting civilians is really horrific.”
