The Russian embassy in Colombia said late Wednesday that the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk was “not the best place to try Ukrainian cuisine,” in response to a protest in Bogota after three Colombian citizens were injured along with at least 57 others. Russian missile attack on a pizzeria in Kramatorsk, EFE reports,

• Russian propaganda: two Ukrainian generals and up to 50 soldiers died during the shelling of Kramatorsk

According to the latest data on the victims of the attack, at least 12 people died.

Three Colombian citizens – writer Hector Abad, former peace commissioner Sergio Jaramillo and journalist Catalina Gomez – who escaped with minor injuries, were accompanied by the famous Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, who is in serious condition, AFP notes. adopted by Agerpres.

“It was with great regret that I learned about the events in Kramatorsk. In our opinion, the front-line city, which has become an operational and military-technical center, is not a suitable place to taste Ukrainian cuisine,” the Russian diplomatic mission said in a message on Twitter.

“Of course, we are glad that this careless trip did not turn into an irreparable tragedy for lightly injured citizens. We insist that representatives of the friendly Colombian people refrain from visiting the territories and places where hostilities are taking place,” the Russian Embassy in Bogotá adds.

Bogota protests

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has called for a diplomatic note of protest to be sent to Russia following the attack in Kramatorsk, which he says “violates the protocols of war”, after Colombia’s foreign ministry expressed its “strongest condemnation”. unacceptable attack by Russian troops on a civilian object in Kramatorsk, Ukraine.”

Russian diplomacy spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also reacted on Wednesday.

“We regret that Colombian citizens were in this place at that time,” she said in a statement, and also wondered “why a Ukrainian citizen invited her friends here,” according to a text published by the Russian Embassy in Bogotá on social networks. media networks.

Abad, Jaramillo and Gomez were with the Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina in a restaurant when a Russian rocket hit the center of Kramatorsk. According to the Ukrainian police, at least 12 people were killed and about 60 were injured as a result of rocket fire by Russian troops.

Ukrainian writer Viktoriya Amelina is in serious condition

According to Ukrainian police, Russia fired two S-300 surface-to-air missiles at the town, which before the war had a population of 150,000 and remains the only large city in the east of the country still under Ukrainian control.

Viktoriya Amelina, a 37-year-old writer whose works have been translated into English, German and several other languages, “is in critical condition after being wounded in the head,” Ukrainian authorities said Wednesday.

Abad and Jaramillo went to the east of Ukraine to “express to the Ukrainian people the solidarity of Latin America against the barbarism and illegal invasion launched by Russia,” according to AFP.

World-renowned writer Hector Abad is known especially for his book “El olvido que seremos”, a literary success that was followed by the movie “Memories of My Father” in 2020.

Sergio Jaramillo, a Colombian politician, was one of the main negotiators of the peace agreement signed in 2016 with the Marxist guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Kramatorsk, an important railway hub, is the de facto regional capital after Moscow-backed pro-Russian separatists seized the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014.

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