Young Writer Among Dead in Russian Strike on Pizza Parlor

Victoria Amelina, 37, documented war crimes
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 3, 2023 1:30 AM CDT
Ukrainian Writer Among the Dead in Russian Strike on Pizza Parlor
A local man walks in front of RIA Pizzeria restaurant, which was attacked by a Russian rocket in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Thursday, June 29, 2023.   (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)

Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina was among the 13 killed when a Russian missile hit a pizza parlor in the eastern city of Kramatorsk last week. The 37-year-old, an award-winning war crimes researcher, was at the restaurant with a delegation of Colombian journalists at the time, the BBC reports. She was hospitalized, but died of her wounds with friends and family by her side Friday. About 60 people were injured in the attack in the city, which is under Ukrainian control but near Russian-occupied parts of the country. The writers' association PEN Ukraine, of which Amelina was a member, says Russia "clearly knew that they were shelling a place with many civilians inside." Four children were killed in the attack, the Guardian reports.

Amelina, who previously published novels and children's books, won a literature prize, and founded a Ukraine literature festival, had been documenting war crimes since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Her first non-fiction book in English, War and Justice Diary: Looking at Women Looking at War, is set to be published soon. PEN Ukraine says that in it, Amelina, who also did advocacy work on behalf of Ukraine and other nations, "tells stories of Ukrainian women who are documenting Russian war crimes, and their lives during the war." Tragically, the association says, "Now, Victoria has become a victim of a war crime herself." (More Ukraine stories.)

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