Colombia’s Foreign Ministry condemned a Russian missile attack on a restaurant in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk that killed at least 11 people and injured three Colombian citizens.
In a press statement, the Foreign Ministry called the Tuesday attack “unacceptable” and expressed the government’s solidarity with former peace commissioner Sergio Jaramillo, writer Hector Abad and journalist Catalina Gomez.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses its strongest condemnation of the unacceptable attack by Russian forces on a civilian target in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, in which Colombian citizens Catalina Gomez, Sergio Jaramillo and Hector Abad were affected. Solidarity with them, with the victims who died and their relatives, as well as with the other people who were affected.
Foreign Ministry
President Gustavo Petro said that the attack “violates war protocols” and asked Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva to send a formal letter of protest to the Russian government.
In a response, a spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed her regret that Colombian citizens were injured in the attack.
Spokesperson Maria Zajarova asked why the Colombians had been invited to Kramarosk, which the Russian Embassy in Bogota called an “operational and logistical military hub.”
According to the embassy, the attacked city was “not an appropriate place to try Ukrainian cuisine.”
The city near the front, which has become an operational and logistic-military hub, is not an appropriate place to enjoy Ukrainian cuisine.
Russian embassy
The person who had invited the Colombians to Kramarosk, Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, was seriously injured in the attack.
Famous Colombian writer Hector Abad Faciolince and Ukrainian librarian Yulia in the liberated village of Kapytolivka, where Ukrainian writer Volodymyr Vakulenko was abducted by the occupiers.
It feels like a solidarity hug from America Latina for Ukraine 💛💙#aguantaUcrania pic.twitter.com/GLITjCdmV5
— Victoria Amelina 🇺🇦 (@vamelina) June 27, 2023
The attack ended the Colombian government’s attempts to remain neutral in the armed conflict that began when the Russian military invaded Ukraine in February last year.
