Madrid, July 3 (EFE).- Ukrainian writer and war crimes researcher Victoria Amelina has died as a result of the injuries she sustained in the Russian bombing of a Kramatorsk restaurant, according to PEN Ukraine.
Amelina, 37, was in the pizzeria on June 27 with Colombian writer Héctor Abad, former high commissioner for peace of the Colombian presidency Sergio Jaramillo, and Colombian journalist Catalina Gómez when it was hit by two missiles.
The Russian attack is one of the deadliest in recent weeks.
The news of the writer’s death was announced late Sunday by the Ukraine chapter of PEN, an international public cultural organization that protects freedom of expression, and of which Amelina was a member.
“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,” PEN Ukraine said in a statement.
“We are announcing this news now when all Victoria’s family members have learned about it and with their consent.”
Amelina, a war crimes documentarian for rights organization Truth Hounds, was severely injured in the attack on the Ria Lounge in the city center.
“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 Ukraine said.
The organization said that analysis of the destruction and evidence from witnesses indicate Russia used high-precision Iskander missiles on the restaurant, which would point to another war crime.
“They clearly knew that they were shelling a place with many civilians inside. We know of 13 dead and about 60 wounded,” PEN said.
Amelina was born on Jan. 1, 1986 in Lviv and while still in school moved with her father to Canada briefly before returning to Ukraine. In 2007 she graduated with a master’s in computer technology from Lviv Polytechnic University and began working in international IT companies.
In 2014, Amelina’s first novel, “The Fall Syndrome, or Homo Compatiens,” was published, and the following year she abandoned her IT career to pursue writing.
In 2016 her first children’s book “Somebody, or Waterheart ” was published and in 2017 her second novel “Dom’s Dream Kingdom” was released. This book was shortlisted for awards such as the LitAccent 2017 Prize, UNESCO City of Literature Prize, and the European Union Prize for Literature.
Amelina’s texts were translated into Polish, Czech, German, Dutch and English.
In 2021, Amelina received the Joseph Conrad-Korzeniowski literature prize. That same year she founded the New York Literature Festival in the town of New York in Bakhmut district, Donetsk region.
Amelina joined the Truth Hounds in the summer of 2022 to document war crimes in the unoccupied territories of eastern, southern and northern Ukraine, in particular in Kapitolivka in Izyum region, where he found the diary of writer Volodymyr Vakulenko, who was killed by Russian troops, PEN said.
She also began work on her first non-fiction book in English, “War and Justice Diary: Looking at Women Looking at War,” which will soon be published outside of Ukraine.
In it the writer tells stories about Ukrainian women documenting war crimes, and their lives during the war.
In addition, Amelina also worked on international advocacy, calling on foreign governments to provide weapons to Ukraine, and also for the international tribunal for Russian war crimes against Ukraine, PEN said. EFE
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