Writer Victoria Amelina was injured in a Russian missile strike of Kramatorsk

This happened on June 27 when Russian armed forces shelled the downtown city with missiles.

Our colleague Victoria Amelina, writer, member of PEN Ukraine, field investigator of Russian war crimes with Truth Hounds, was injured as a result of the Russian armed forces' missile shelling of a restaurant in Kramatorsk (Donetsk region) where she had been accompanying a delegation of Colombian journalists and writers.

Now Victoria is in the hospital. She is treated by experienced doctors, supported by her family and friends, and well stocked with all the essentials. There is no need in raising extra money. Further updates will be given by PEN Ukraine with the permission from Victoria’s family.

The shelling of Kramatorsk is another Russia’s war crime in Ukraine, as on 27 June 2023, the Russians deliberately launched their missiles on a civilian target in Kramatorsk where many people used to gather. As a consequence of this attack, 12 people are known to have died and over 60 were injured by the morning of 29 June.

We will remind that Victoria Amelina made her debut as a writer with the novel The Fall Syndrome, or Homo Compatiens in 2014. Her works were shortlisted for national and international awards such as LitAccent rating, UNESCO City of Literature Prize, European Prize for Literature and many others. In 2021, Victoria won the Joseph Conrad Korzeniowski Prize and established the New York Literary Festival to take place in the Ukrainian town of New York (Bakhmut district of the Donetsk region). Herprose, poems, and essays have been translated into various languages, including English, Polish, Dutch, Czech, and German. Recently, her novel Dom’s Dream Kingdom was translated into Spanish.

Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine compelled Victoria to become more than an author. In the summer of 2022, she joined Truth Hounds, a human rights organization. Together with their team, Victoria worked as a field investigator of Russia’s war crimes in the liberated territories of northern, eastern and southern Ukraine – particularly in Kapytolivka near Izium where she found writer Volodymyr Vakulenko’s war diary after he had been killed by Russians.