She saved the diary of a Ukrainian writer killed by Russia. Then she was killed, too

Victoria Amelina stands next to a cherry tree in the backyard of Volodymyr Vakulenko, a Ukrainian children's book author, where he buried his diary of living under Russian occupation in Kapytolivka before he was killed. (Claire Harbage/NPR)

KAPYTOLIVKA, KYIV AND LVIV, Ukraine — Last fall, the novelist Victoria Amelina found herself frantically digging up a fellow writer's backyard in northeastern Ukraine.

She was looking for a diary belonging to children's author Volodymyr Vakulenko. He usually wrote offbeat, deeply empathetic poems for children but his diary was about life under Russian occupation.