Volunteers are working on the rescue work after the Russian attack on the city of Kramatorsk this Tuesday.GENYA SAVILOV (AFP)
Two rockets hit the center of the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Donetsk region on Tuesday afternoon, one of the most turbulent wartime events in Ukraine. According to the country’s presidency, three people have been killed and 25 injured. One of the impacts reduced the Ria to rubble, a popular restaurant among local residents as well as the military and reporters who use the city as one of their bases for reporting on the Russian invasion. They were Sergio Jaramillo, former peace commissioner, writer Héctor Abad Faciolince, reporter Catalina Gómez Ángel, the three Colombians accompanied by Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina and a driver, according to establishment sources.
Amelina was injured and is undergoing surgery. The rest of the group was unharmed and is physically healthy after being checked at the local hospital. The attack happened shortly after he sat down at one of the tables on the covered patio. Witnesses report “very tough” scenes in the hospital with numerous injuries.
One of the damaged buildings after the attack on the city of Kramatorsk. NATIONAL POLICE OF UKRAINE (via Portal)
They traveled from Kiev to eastern Ukraine on Monday. After visiting the Kharkiv region, they continued their journey to the Donetsk region. Before the expedition arrived at the attacked restaurant for dinner, the expedition visited other nearby cities such as Sloviansk. They had collected testimonies from the military and/or the director of a hospital to gather material as part of the support campaign.
Sergio Jaramillo, credited with being a key figure in signing the 2016 agreement between the FARC guerrillas and the Colombian government, promoted the Hold Ukraine campaign last February, aware that his country and the entire region was suffering after the great Russian invasion had to do more. That’s why Jaramillo and Abad are traveling to Ukraine these days, where they also presented Aguanta Ukraine at the Kiev Book Fair.
“This is a campaign to raise the voice of Latin America in solidarity with the people of Ukraine,” Jaramillo said in a promotional video, explaining that he leads this citizens’ initiative along with friends from Peru, Mexico, Argentina and Uruguay. A campaign, he added, “to ensure Latin America has its own voice in the international debate.” It’s a campaign in favor of common sense, to put it bluntly: invading the neighbors is what it is is, an invasion. Attacking civilians in their homes with rockets is what it means: killing civilians. Destroying a country’s electrical infrastructure in the middle of a brutal winter is what it is: a war crime.”
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