On Palm Sunday last April, a Russian ballistic missile ripped through a crowded city bus in Sumy, killing 35 civilians and wounding 145, Ukrainian war-crime prosecutor Vitalii Dovhal told CBS’s 60 Minutes. He arrived from church to find a burned shell packed with bodies.
Ukraine’s top prosecutor told 60 Minutes that 178,391 war-crime investigations were open at the start of the fall, calling the country “the largest crime scene in the world.”
Bus turned into crime scene, not battlefield
In a recent TV interview, Dovhal walked cameras through the wrecked bus, holding up fragments from an anti-personnel warhead. “It was all mud, dust, blood, crying and bodies,” he said, describing a strike on ordinary passengers.
Key facts from the Palm Sunday attack:
- City: Sumy, less than 32 kilometers from Russia
- Toll: 35 civilians killed, 145 wounded
Building justice, serial number by serial number
In a warehouse of mangled drones and missile parts, Dovhal shows how every fragment is logged. “On each part we find a serial number,” he said. Investigators have traced the Sumy strike to specific Russian units and, he added, “We already know the individuals who gave the orders to carry out the attacks.”
Since that 178,391 figure was shared, Ukrainian prosecutors say the tally has already passed 190,000 suspected war crimes, including more than 5,100 drone attacks on civilians in the first nine months of 2025—twice all of 2024.
Peace blueprint critics say rewards aggression, ignores victims
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That mountain of evidence now collides with a Trump-backed peace blueprint shaped in talks with Putin. 28-point plan mirrors Moscow’s rejected 2022 demands, trading Ukrainian territory and military strength for sanctions relief while staying silent on war-crimes accountability.
Diplomats have warned the framework risks hollowing out the UN Charter and inviting future Russian attacks if Kyiv is pushed to accept it. For Ukrainians like Dovhal, any deal that restores trade and politics but ignores Bus Route 62 looks less like peace—and more like amnesty.
“I have never seen such a horror in my life.” The question hanging over Sumy’s shattered bus is whether the world is ready to look away and let that horror go unpunished.
