Writer Viktoriya Amelina, wounded during Russian shelling of Kramatorsk, hospitalized

Ukrainian writer Viktoriya Amelina, who was seriously injured in the Russian missile attack on Kramatorsk, is in the hospital and provided with everything necessary.

This was reported by journalist/PEN Ukraine executive director Tetiana Teren.

“Currently, Viktoriya Amelina is in the hospital. Specialist doctors, her relatives, and her friends are by her side. She has everything she needs; raising additional funds is unnecessary. We will definitely inform about further news and needs with relatives’ permission. As before, today we ask everyone who knows and loves Vika to be with her in thoughts and prayers,” wrote Tetiana Teren.

Viktoriya Amelina, 37, is a famous Ukrainian writer from Lviv, laureate of the Joseph Conrad-Kozhenovsky Literary Prize and the Coronation of the Word national award.

According to the Latin American organization Aquanta Ukraina (Hold on, Ukraine), during the shelling of Kramatorsk on the evening of June 27, 2023, light injuries were received, in particular, by the famous Colombian writer and journalist Hector Abad Faciolince, Colombian journalist Catalina Gómez Angel and Colombian politician Sergio Jaramillo Caro; Ukrainian writer and public figure Viktoriya Amelina was seriously injured and is in the hospital.

“Viktoriya Amelina, our Ukrainian guide and friend, documented Russian war crimes in Ukraine,” wrote Hector Abad Faciolince on the social network. “We wanted to go with her to the Ria Pizza pizzeria in Kramatorsk because it was her favorite restaurant in this city. There were many Ukrainian civilians and foreigners like us… As evening fell, the Russians launched a rocket at the restaurant where we talked to Viktoriya, Sergio Jaramillo, and Catalina Gómez. We just ordered a pizza and joked about the law that only allows us to order a non-alcoholic beer. Viktoriya was enjoying her zero beer when Putin’s occupiers launched a missile. I fell to the ground as if struck by lightning. Everything began to move in slow motion. When I got up, Viktoriya was sitting there, very pale, with her eyes closed and completely motionless. She didn’t look injured but didn’t respond to anything either. Finally, an ambulance took her away. She has a serious injury… She is… after an operation in the 3^rd hospital of Kramatorsk… Hold on, Ukraine! Glory to Ukraine!”

“I find the idea that a country would use its military power to attack civilians, residential buildings, not to mention the fact of an invasion, absolutely terrifying,” Sergio Jaramillo said in an interview for the BBC. “And when the country that does this is one of the largest military powers in the world and one of the permanent members of the Security Council, which, in principle, defends international law, you see that the matter is bad. I saw it. It’s a restaurant, a pizzeria, and frankly, in a war, you don’t shoot a missile at a restaurant unless you’re behaving like a terrorist state.”

Colombian President Gustavo Petro condemned the attack, which left Colombians injured, and said Russia was “violating the protocols of war” in this way. In response, the Russian embassy in Colombia called the Colombians’ trip to Kramatorsk “reckless,” adding that this city is “not the most suitable city for tasting Ukrainian cuisine.”

According to the latest data, 12 people, including three children, died as a result of a rocket attack on Kramatorsk, Donetsk Region. Another 60 people were injured.