Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, killed by Russian missile, receives Prix Voltaire Award posthumously

Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina was posthumously awarded the Special Prix Voltaire Award at the 34th International Publishers Congress, which was held from 4 to 6 December in Guadalajara, Mexico, according to PEN Ukraine.

The International Publishers Association presents the Special Prix Voltaire Award to recognize extraordinary efforts in the fight for freedom of expression and to highlight how the laureates were silenced. Amelina’s award was accepted by Oleksandra Matviichuk, the head of the Center for Civil Liberties. The organization was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.

“After my speech, many people came up to me, saying they knew Victoria personally from book festivals or art events. I am once again amazed at how much she did—traveling, speaking, volunteering, documenting war crimes, and writing a book. And, of course, it deeply saddens me that Vika cannot accept her award herself. But the bridges she built between Ukraine and the world are still functioning, and this is very palpable at this international congress of authors and publishers,” Matviichuk said during her address.

At the ceremony, organizers showed last year’s speech by Amelina in Norway, where she received the Special Prix Voltaire Award on behalf of author Volodymyr Vakulenko, who was killed by Russian forces in 2022 in the Izium district of Kharkiv.

Amelina was the author of Syndrome of November, or Homo Compatiens, Someone, or Water Heart, E-e-excavator Eki Stories, and A House for Doma. In June 2022, she joined the human rights organization Truth Hounds, where she worked as a war crimes documenter in liberated regions of eastern, southern, and northern Ukraine.

She was killed on 1 July 2023 after sustaining injuries in a Russian missile strike on Kramatorsk on 27 June, UkrInform reports.

In 2024, Vydavnytstvo Staroho Leva published Testimonies, a collection of Amelina’s poetry. In spring 2025, her book War & Justice Diary: Looking at Women Looking at War will be released.

The Prix Voltaire Award, presented by the International Publishers Association, honors outstanding achievements by writers in the struggle for freedom of speech.

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