missile attack on a popular restaurant frequented by journalists and aid workers in eastern Ukraine, PEN America said.
FILE - A woman dressed in mourning clothes holds a portrait of the late Victoria Amelina during a funeral ceremony in the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery on July 4, 2023, in Kyiv, Ukraine. At least 11 others were killed and 61 were wounded in the attack around dinnertime, when the restaurant was usually busy. Ukrainian authorities arrested a man a day later, accusing him of helping Russia direct the strike.
PEN Ukraine announced Amelina's death after her family was informed of it. Amelina was in Kramatorsk with a delegation of Colombian writers and journalists. She had been documenting Russian war crimes with the human rights organization Truth Hounds. She went on to write two award-winning children's books, "Somebody, or Waterheart" and another novel, "Storie-e-es of Eka the Excavator." In 2017, her novel, "Dom's Dream Kingdom," received national and international accolades — including the UNESCO City of Literature Prize and the European Union Prize for Literature.
Since the start of the invasion, Amelina devoted herself to documenting Russian war crimes in eastern Ukraine, PEN America said. In Kapytolivka near Izium, she discovered the diary of Volodymyr Vakulenko, a Ukrainian writer killed by the Russians.