Victoria Amelina, a prominent young writer from Ukraine, tragically lost her life in a Russian missile attack on a bustling restaurant in eastern Ukraine. She was 37 years old at the time of her death. The attack on the Ria Lounge restaurant in Kramatorsk claimed the lives of 13 civilians, including Ms. Amelina, who was dining with a Colombian delegation. Despite the efforts of doctors and paramedics in Kramatorsk and Dnipro, Ms. Amelina succumbed to her severe injuries on Saturday.
PEN Ukraine, a writers’ group, expressed their condolences and acknowledged the valiant efforts made to save Victoria’s life. In their statement, they highlighted the presence of her loved ones and closest friends during her final days. This devastating news deeply affected Ukraine’s writing and journalism community, which has already endured numerous losses due to Russia’s full-scale invasion. Just days before the attack, Ms. Amelina had participated in the Kyiv Book Arsenal, a significant literary festival in the capital.
In a heartfelt tribute on Twitter, Ukrainian journalist Olga Tokariuk mourned the loss of Victoria Amelina, expressing the sentiment that many unwritten books, untold stories, and unlived days were taken away with her. Hailing from Lviv, Ms. Amelina was widely recognized in Ukraine for her novels, children’s books, poems, and essays. In 2014, after publishing her first book, she made the bold decision to leave her job in information technology and fully commit herself to writing.
Victoria Amelina received numerous accolades and recognition for her literary contributions. In 2021, she was honored with the Joseph Conrad Korzeniowski Literary Prize, a prestigious award given to Ukrainian writers under the age of 40. Additionally, she initiated a small literature festival in the Donetsk region. The following year, she joined the human rights organization Truth Hounds to investigate Russian war crimes in areas reclaimed by Ukrainian forces. She was also in the process of writing her first nonfiction book in English, focusing on Ukrainian women documenting war crimes, as stated by PEN Ukraine.
PEN America, the U.S.-based arm of the organization, emphasized how Victoria Amelina’s work brought a unique literary sensitivity, describing the devastating impact of human rights violations on the lives of Ukrainians with meticulous precision.
Ms. Amelina regularly documented the lived experience of war. In a tweet from June 2022, she questioned why, despite appearing as a typical Ukrainian writer with a bag adorned with portraits of great Ukrainian poets, she found herself documenting Russia’s war crimes and listening to the sounds of shelling instead of engaging with art and poetry.
In the wake of the attack, friends and colleagues flooded social media with tributes, often quoting her poignant words. One verse, in particular, resonated deeply: “An air raid across the country, each time like going to everyone’s execution, yet they aim at only one.”
Days before the strike in Kramatorsk, Victoria Amelina had reflected on hearing the sound of explosions from her balcony, acknowledging the emotional toll of war when it becomes impossible to keep track of every tragedy–yet she insisted on remembering the names of those lost.
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