The Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina did not leave the huge literary legacy that she might have done, had she been given more time. When a Russian rocket exploded in Kramatorsk on 27 June, the poet and novelist was just 37 years old. The rocket caused injuries from which she would not recover.
Yet in her short life, Amelina still managed to achieve a great deal. She emigrated 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. She seemed to have a bright future in that field, but in 2015 decided to exchange it for the life of a full-time writer. An extremely active and vivacious person, Victoria also got involved in public life and the struggle for human rights – especially the rights of political prisoners.
