Ukrainian writer and Truth Hounds fellow Viktoria Amelina dies of her injuries after Russian attack on Kramatorsk restaurant

Ukrainian writer and activist Viktoria Amelina died on July 1 after injuries received in an attack by Russian troops on Kramatorsk, the Ukrainian PEN club reported on Sunday.

"It is with great pain that we inform you that the heart of the writer Viktoria Amelina stopped beating on July 1 in the Mechnikov Hospital in Dnipro. Her life ended due to a non-life-threatening injury caused by a rocket attack by the Russian occupiers on a restaurant in Kramatorsk on June 27, 2023. We are reporting this news now when all of Viktoria's relatives are informed and with their consent," the organization says.

Viktoria Amelina, 37, was at the Ria Lounge restaurant with a delegation of Colombian journalists and writers when the Russian rocket struck the building.

After the start of the full-scale invasion, Viktoria Amelina was involved in documenting Russian war crimes as part of the human rights organization Truth Hounds. In particular, as indicated by the PEN club, she found the diary of the Ukrainian writer Volodymyr Vakulenko, who the Russian occupiers killed in the now-liberated city of Izium. The diary, hidden in his garden, served as a firsthand account of Russian atrocities as they unfolded.

The writer also worked on a book in English, War and Justice Diary: Looking at Women Looking at War, about women documenting Russian war crimes. The club will announce its release abroad soon.

Amelina also organized the first literary festival in Niu York in the eastern Donetsk region, which took place in October 2021.

Thirteen people are currently known to have been killed by the attack on Kramatorsk on June 27, when Russian forces launched two missile strikes on the center of Kramatorsk and the private housing of the nearby village of Bilenke, causing numerous civilian casualties and destruction. Among the dead were three children, and about 60 people were injured.