Colombians Sergio Jaramillo and Hector Abad, unharmed after a bombing in Ukraine

Two missiles hit the center of the city of Kramatorsk, in the eastern region of Donetsk, one of the most turbulent during the war in Ukraine on Tuesday afternoon. The result is, so far, three dead and 25 injured, according to sources from the country’s presidency. One of the impacts reduced to rubble the Ria, a popular restaurant both among the local population and among the military and reporters who have this city as one of the bases to cover the Russian invasion. There were Sergio Jaramillo, former peace commissioner, the writer Hector Abad Faciolince, the reporter Catalina Gomez Angel, the three Colombians, in the company of the Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina and a driver, according to sources present in the establishment.

Amelina was injured and is undergoing surgery. The rest of the group was unharmed and are physically well after being checked at the local hospital. The attack took place shortly after sitting down at one of the tables on the covered terrace. Witnesses recount “very harsh” scenes in the hospital with numerous injuries.

They had traveled from kyiv to eastern Ukraine on Monday. After visiting the Kharkiv region, they continued their journey to the Donetsk region. Before arriving at the attacked restaurant for dinner, the expedition visited other nearby towns such as Sloviansk. They had been collecting testimonies from the military and/or the director of a hospital to collect material as part of the support campaign.

“This is a campaign to raise the voice of Latin America in solidarity with the people of Ukraine,” Jaramillo said in a promotional video, in which he explained that he leads this citizen initiative with friends from Peru, Mexico, Argentina and Uruguay. A campaign, he added, “to ensure that Latin America has its own voice in the international debate. It is a campaign in favor of common sense, to call things by their name: invading the neighbor is what it is, an invasion. Attacking civilians in their residences, with missiles, is what it is: killing civilians. Destroying a country’s electrical infrastructure in the middle of a brutal winter is what it is: a war crime.”