Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina dies after Kramatorsk shelling
“With our greatest pain, we inform you that Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina passed away on July 1st in Mechnikov Hospital in Dnipro. Her death was caused by injuries incompatible with life, which she suffered from during the Russian missile shelling of a restaurant in Kramatorsk on June 27th, 2023. We are announcing this news now when all Victoria's family members have learned about it and with their consent,” reads the statement by PEN Ukraine.
On June 27th, Victoria Amelina was in Kramatorsk with a delegation of Colombian writers and journalists. As they were having dinner at the Ria Lounge restaurant downtown, Russians launched a missile attack on this restaurant. Victoria was severely injured.
“Doctors and paramedics in Kramatorsk and Dnipro did everything they could to save her life, but the injuries were fatal and incompatible with life. In the last days of Victoria’s life, her closest people and friends were with her,” PEN reports.
In 2022, Amelina joined the human rights organization Truth Hounds and has been documenting Russian war crimes on de-occupied territories in the eastern, southern and northern parts of Ukraine, in particular in Kapytolivka near Izium where she found a diary of Volodymyr Vakulenko, a Ukrainian writer killed by the Russians.
During this time Victoria also started working on her first non-fiction book in English. In War and Justice Diary: Looking at Women Looking at War, which should soon be published abroad, Victoria tells stories of Ukrainian women who are documenting Russian war crimes, and their lives during the war.
The writer also did advocacy work in other countries, calling on the governments of those countries to enhance Ukrainian defense against Russian aggression by supplying weapons to Ukraine, and demanding justice and the international tribunal for all those who organized and committed Russian war crimes in Ukraine. She also raised the issue of commonalities in the anti-colonial fight of Ukrainians and other nations of the world.
Victoria Amelina’s texts have been published in translation into Polish, Czech, German, Dutch, and English. Dom’s Dream Kingdom has been recently translated into Spanish.
In 2021 Victoria received the Joseph Conrad-Korzeniowski literature prize. The same year, she founded the New York Literature Festival in the town of New York in the Bakhmut rayon of the Donetsk oblast, Eastern part of Ukraine.
As reported, Russian troops launched two missile strikes on Kramatorsk on the evening of June 27. One missile hit a pizzeria in the city center. The second missile hit the village of Bilenke.
As a result of the attack, among others, three Colombians were injured – famous writer Héctor Abad, politician Sergio Jaramillo, and journalist Catalina Gómez, who were accompanied by Victoria Amelina.
Photo: Juan Vega de Soto
