#aguantaucrania

[santenchan-the-youtuber]

❗️🔴🔴➡️ La campaña "Apoya a #Ucrania" se está extendiendo en América Latina. Su fundador y principal impulsor es el ex Alto Comisionado para la Paz de Colombia, el escritor y filósofo Sergio Jaramillo. En un momento, participó en negociaciones entre el gobierno colombiano y la guerrilla comunista del grupo FARC-EP. 💬Hola, Soy Sergio Jaramillo. El ex comisionado de Paz de Cartagena Colombia.✈️ Está es una campaña para levantar la voz de América Latina en solidaridad con el pueblo de UCRANIA.Con unos amigos, Francisco Samper, Esteban martuche y otros amigos de México, Perú, Argentina, Uruguay; creamos este #espacio. Para mandarle una voz de aliento a los Ucranianos, para que sigan resistiendo, para asegurar que América Latina tenga voz propia en el debate internacional, es una campaña a Favor del sentido Común; llamar las cosas por su nombre, invadir al vecino es lo que es «Una invasión» atacar civiles con misiles en sus residencias es lo que es «asesinar Civiles», destruir la infraestructura electrica de un país en medio de un invierno brutal es lo que es un crimen de guerra, no necesita más comentarios, no se puede ignorar, cualquier persona en América Latina que entiende eso, nosotros nacimos como pueblos libres expulsando un imperio, eso nadie en América Latina más allá de nuestras diferencias políticas o ideologícas puede estar de acuerdo con un invasor , los invitamos entonces a todos a qué sumen sus voces.🇺🇦 Únete a la campaña, sube tu #video usando los #hashtags #AguantaUcrania #SanTenChan 🇺🇦  @santenchan https://www.instagram.com/p/CoGIgx0ro4A/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[cyberbenb]

PEN Ukraine and Truth Hounds Statement Regarding Russian Missile Strike On Kramatorsk

On June 27th, 2023, Russia committed another war crime, sending an Iskander missile with a highly explosive warhead at Ria Lounge restaurant in Kramatorsk, a city in the Eastern part of Ukraine. 

At least 12 people are confirmed dead, and 60 are wounded. Three children were among the dead, including two twin 14-year-old girls.

Among the people severely wounded in this crime is our dearest colleague Victoria Amelina: a brilliant award-winning, worldwide known Ukrainian writer and human rights activist who spent her time since the beginning of the full-scale invasion documenting war crimes, working with children on frontline territories, and striving to revive a literary festival that she had founded in the town of New York in Eastern Ukraine (now on the frontline). Both PEN Ukraine and Truth Hounds have traveled with Victoria many times to frontline territories, and her work has always aroused admiration. Together with Truth Hounds documenters, she came to the house of the family of Volodymyr Vakulenko, a Ukrainian writer unlawfully detained and killed by the Russian soldiers, as soon as Izyum was unoccupied. Due to her persistent search, his diary was found, which has now been published, and is another document of Russian war crimes. Now, Victoria has become a victim of a war crime herself. Doctors are fighting for her life. 

The Russians knew the Ria Lounge restaurant is a rare and popular place in the frontline city of Kramatorsk where people get together to talk and have their meals. They knew the strike would have many victims — but they targeted this crowd, as they have numerous times during this war, and during their previous wars. 

They did so previously in Kherson on December 24th, 2022, when they targeted a market full of people shopping, killing 10 people and wounding more than 60. They did so in the same Kramatorsk on April 8th, 2022, when they sent a missile to a crowd of people waiting for an evacuation train in a railway station, killing at least 61, and leaving over a hundred people wounded. They did so a year ago, by attacking a trade mall in Kremenchuk killing at least 20 people. They did so on March 9th, 2022, when they dropped huge bombs on two 5-story buildings in Izyum, killing dozens of people in each of the houses, even though they were hiding in the basements. They blew up the Nova Kakhovka dam on June 6th, 2023, causing a huge increase in water levels and the deaths of many people by drowning. The disastrous environmental consequences of this act will persist for many decades. The list of these crimes can go on and on. The shelling of the Kramatorsk Ria Lounge is another crime in this chain, and another evidence of the way Russians wage their wars. 

Immediately after the attack, Russian propagandists started to spread false narratives that the strike killed so-called foreign mercenaries. The next day, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the attack was carried out on the temporary headquarters of one of the Ukrainian Armed Forces brigades, and 2 Ukrainian generals, about 50 officers, and 20 mercenaries were killed as a result of it. 

Truth Hounds has interviewed eyewitnesses of the attack who testified that there were no military objects that could have been a legal target for the attack around that day. Also, they confirmed that it was a regular day in one of the most popular restaurants in the city: up to 40 people, divided into small companies, were having dinner. Truth Hounds investigators identified that the foreigners, whom Russian propaganda called mercenaries, actually were volunteers and journalists. 

Our other colleagues, the Colombian writer Hector Abad Faciolince, and the former High Commissioner for Peace, Sergio Jaramillo, who set up with other writers the campaign #AguantaUcrania to express Latin America’s support to the Ukrainian people, were also in the restaurant with Victoria Amelina. They are lightly injured. Journalist Catalina Gomez, who has been covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine since its very beginning for France 24, was also there and accompanied Victoria in an evacuation ambulance to the hospital. Sergio and Hector came to Ukraine despite the long distance that separates our countries to support humanity in its fight against barbarism. Their lives are not threatened.

Analysis of the destruction and witness testimonies indicate that, most likely, Russia’s Armed Forces used an Iskander missile to carry out the attack. This is a missile with a high accuracy, so Russians knew exactly what it would hit.

In our opinion, the attack on the Ria Lounge restaurant may qualify as a war crime pursuant to Article 8(2)(b)(ii) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Alternatively, such an attack may be qualified under Article 8(2)(b)(i) or Article 8(2)(b)(iv) of the Rome Statute of the ICC.

Russia has proven once again that it does not care about civilians or international law. Every day this aggressor country continues to attack civilians in Ukraine. There are so many other stories, every day, every night, stories of people whose lives end, who will have no tomorrow, who will never respond. 

The current Russian state is a global perpetrator. It has been involved directly and in a hybrid way in many conflicts across the globe. The two main tasks of the world now are to stop the atrocities and to contribute to establishing justice. 

PEN Ukraine and Truth Hounds appeal to the citizens of all countries, human rights and cultural organisations of the world: use every platform to spread the information about Russia’s crimes and call on your national governments to activate extraterritorial justice mechanisms in order to bring justice to all victims of war crimes. Let’s put an end to Russia’s impunity together! 

Victims await justice. Prisons await criminals.    

It is not only about Ukrainians. It is about all humans and our values.