Colombian writer Héctor Abad, who was dining at a restaurant in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk hit by a Russian missile, described the explosion on Wednesday as “it came from the bottom of the earth”.
The attack left 10 dead and more than 60 injured, including Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, who accompanied Abad and other Colombians and is in critical condition after injuries to her skull.
Abad was in the restaurant with former peace commissioner Sergio Jaramillo and journalist Catalina Gomez, both Colombians, at the time of the Russian attack on the city in Donetsk region, in Donbass (east).
It was “a very loud, very dry sound, and everything started flying,” Jaramillo said during a phone call with the Spanish agency EFE when he returned to Kiev with Abad.
“I fell to the ground, it was like being struck by lightning,” Abad said of what followed.
The Colombian writer said he then looked at the other elements of the group he spoke to just before.
“When I managed to get up, I saw that Victoria [Amelina] she was very pale, motionless, sedentary. Although we called her, she didn’t respond,” he recalled to EFE.
The Ukrainian writer was taken to a hospital where she continued to receive treatment.
Both Abad and Jaramillo said reality seemed to be happening “in slow motion” amid the devastation and chaos caused by the blast.
“There were many cries of desperation, of horror and people running, journalists, women, young people, old people,” Abad said.
“And then ambulances and people, rescuers, doctors began to arrive,” added the writer, who has published works in Portugal, such as “Oculta” or “We are the oblivion we want.”
The Russian military said the attack on Kramatorsk targeted “a temporary command post of the Ukrainian Army’s 56th motorized infantry brigade”.
Russia has consistently denied attacks against civilians or civilian infrastructure in the war it launched against Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Abad and Jaramillo traveled to Ukraine to participate in the Kiev Book Fair, where they launched the Aguanta Ucrania! to the Ukrainian public.
The campaign, launched by Jaramillo, aims to convey Latin America’s support for Ukraine and raise awareness of the Ukrainian reality among the Latin American public.
Jaramillo and Abad traveled to eastern Ukraine to learn more about the war crimes attributed to Russian troops, on a journey that left the Ukrainian writer between life and death.
Victoria Amelina, 37, is the author of two novels and a children’s book, and was awarded the Joseph Conrad Literary Prize by the Kiev Polish Institute in December 2021.
Source: DN
