Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina still achieves a great deal in her short life

Victoria Amelina, a Ukrainian writer, did not leave the huge literary legacy that she had done if she had been given more time. The poet and novelist was just 37 years old, when a Russian rocket exploded in Kramatorsk on June 27. She would not recover from the injury she suffered after the rocket.

Amelina still managed to achieve a great deal, even in her short life. She moved to Canada with her family at the age of 14, but decided to return to Ukraine, to her native city of Lviv, soon after. She graduated from the Lviv Polytechnic Institute and became a computer programmer. In 2015, she appeared to have a bright future in that field, but in 2015 decided to exchange it for the life of a full-time writer. Victoria was a very active and vivacious person, pursuing human rights, particularly the rights of political prisoners.

Not content with just sitting in her office and writing novels and children's books, she travelled around Europe and arranged demonstrations demanding the release of the Ukrainian film director and writer Oleg Sentsov, who was in a Russian prison.

In 2021, she founded a literary festival, mainly for younger readers, in New York City, in the Donbas. A few weeks ago, a Russian rocket destroyed the old city cinema which served as the site of the festival. Although she was upset about this, Victoria made it clear in a statement that the New York festival would be revived after the war.

Victoria has been documenting the Russian army's war crimes since February last year. The death of her colleague, the Ukrainian children's author Volodymyr Vakulenko, who was murdered by the Russian military in March last year, is now evidence that she was motivated to do so.

Together with his son, Vakulenko chose to stay in his village, Kapitolivka, when it was occupied. The day before he was abducted by Russian soldiers for the second time, he buried his diary in his parents' garden under an old cherry tree. Amelina immediately went to the village when the Kharkiv region was liberated. Vakulenko's parents showed her the place where he had buried the diary. She dug it up and then panicked, calling her friends at the Kharkiv Literary museum: What should I do with it? Why is the paper soaking wet? Amelina took part in the presentation of Vakulenko's work which included his last text, the diary written during Russia's occupation. Amelina died on Vakulenko's birthday on 1 July.

Amelina has collected us a children's book, poetry, several essays, two novels and an unfinished nonfiction book of testimonies about the war in Ukraine during the last 16 months. She wrote it in English to speed up its delivery to foreign readers. She felt the world lacks a clear comprehension of what is happening in Ukraine. I am sure that this book, War and Justice Diary: Looking at Women Looking at War, will be published in its unfinished state.

The novel Dom's Dream Kingdom, the most famous work by Amelina, continues to attract new readers and was recently published in Spanish. The story of three generations of one family, that of a Soviet pilot Ivan Tsylik, who moved to Lviv in western Ukraine before the collapse of the USSR. The story of their daughters and granddaughters who search for their new identity in independent Ukraine is told by their pet poodle Dominic. Amelina's debut novel, Fall Syndrome, was released in 2017 and reached shelves in 2015 as a result of the novel's release.

Ukraine has lost more than 30 people over the last year and a half of Russian aggression, including about 30 writers, poets and publishers. Amelina now joins this list and enters the history of Ukrainian literature, a tragic history filled with unfinished books.

I hope that one of her colleagues will write a biographical book about her life, her humour and kindness, her amazing energy and a glowing smile that sparkled even in the most difficult times.

Even when she had no physical strength left, Amelina never lost her strength of mind. At the end of July, she was planning to be at the Carpathian Mountains, at a summer camp for children from the Donbas. She will be very much missed by the children and, of course, her parents, her husband and their 12-year-old son.