Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said Wednesday that his country would send a note of diplomatic protest to Russia after three Colombians were injured in a missile strike that killed 12 in Ukraine.
Petro said on Twitter that “Russia has attacked three defenseless Colombian civilians. In so doing, it violated the protocols of war.”
He added that Columbia’s foreign ministry will deliver a note of diplomatic protest to Moscow.
Three children were among the dead and at least 60 people were injured in Tuesday’s rocket strike on the Ria Pizza restaurant in the town of Kramatorsk.
The three injured Colombians are decorated writer Hector Abad Faciolince, former Colombian peace negotiator Sergio Jaramillo and journalist Catalina Gomez.
Abad and Jaramillo were in Kramatorsk on a mission to express Latin American solidarity with the people of Ukraine amid Russia’s war.
On social media, they said they had been with prominent Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, who was critically injured in the strike.
Petro had previously opposed sending weapons to support Ukraine against Russia’s aggression and has spoken in favor of a negotiated solution.
After meeting U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington in April, the two leaders in a statement “condemned all forms of authoritarianism and aggression in the world, including Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity contrary to international law, while reiterating the urgent call for a stable and lasting peace.”
