37-year-old Victoria Amelina, one of Ukraine's best-known young writers, died from injuries from a Russian missile strike in the city of Kramatorsk on June 27. In memoriam we rebroadcast her Ukraine 2 4 2 interview with Anne Levine from last May.
Victoria Amelina stopped writing novels when Russia invaded Ukraine, saying: in 2022, it became impossible to write fiction (because) reality is so much more intense; it is impossible to invent stories anymore.
Prior to her death she worked as a war crimes researcher with the organization TRUTH HOUNDS.
In the Izium region, Victoria Amelina uncovered the war diary of fellow Ukrainian writer Volodymyr Vakulenko, who buried the dairy before he was killed by the occupying forces. She found it with the aid of his father in the back yard of the family home.
Amelina kept a journal of the work being done by war-crimes researchers and became a successful poet published by papers such as the New York Times, and various anthologies.
Victoria Amelina was a celebrated Ukrainian author of novels and children's books since 2015, when she won several literary awards for her first book, The Fall Syndrome, about the events at Maidan in 2014. In 2017 her novel Doms Dream Kingdom was released and was shortlisted for the prestigious LitAkcent literary award and the European Union Prize for Literature in 2019.