Ukrainian writer and war crimes researcher Victoria Amelina has died as a result of injuries sustained in the Russian bombing of a Kramatorsk restaurant.
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The news of the writer's death was announced late on Sunday by the Ukraine chapter of PEN, an international public cultural organisation that protects freedom of expression, and of which Amelina was a member.
Amelina, was in a pizzeria on June 27 with Colombian writer Hector Abad, former high commissioner for peace in Colombia Sergio Jaramillo, and Colombian journalist Catalina Gomez, when it was hit by two missiles.
The Russian attack is one of the deadliest in recent weeks.
"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 organisation Truth Hounds, was severely injured in the attack on the Ria Lounge in the city centre.
PEN said analysis of the destruction and evidence from witnesses indicated 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 in Lviv in 1986. She graduated from university in 2007 with a masters in computer technology 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 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, she 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 eastern, southern and northern Ukraine, in particular in Kapitolivka in Izyum region.
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.
Australian Associated Press
