[Available in Spanish and French.]
Amelina had attended the 2023 IPA Prix Voltaire ceremony to receive the IPA Prix Voltaire Special Award on behalf of children’s author and poet, Volodymyr Vakulenko. She had then brought the Special Award from Norway to Vakulenko’s parents in Kapytolivka.
In her speech at the Prix Voltaire ceremony at the World Expression Forum in Lillehammer, Norway, Victoria said: ‘I am a Ukrainian writer speaking on behalf of my colleague Volodymyr Vakulenko who, unlike me, didn’t survive another attempt of the Russian Empire to erase Ukrainian identity. The Ukrainian literary community is grateful for the award. This award is unique, meaningful, and moving to us, partly because no one out of hundreds of other Ukrainian writers who, like Vakulenko, were murdered throughout Ukrainian history ever received such an international award posthumously. I am sure that Volodymyr Vakulenko would like to dedicate this award to them too.’
And so it is, that this Special Award is also dedicated to Victoria’s memory. Rest in Peace.
In a social media post, Gvantsa Jobava, IPA Vice President wrote:
I met Victoria Amelina, the Ukrainian writer and activist, in Norway. […] We spent a very nice evening together, we talked about everything, about Georgia and Ukraine, about war, victory and peace, about life and death, about her activism during the war. We became friends, she became very dear to me. We met each other again recently in Kyiv, at the Book Arsenal festival. I was so happy to meet her again, she was everywhere, taking part in different events and panel discussions. […] She cared about everything not only around Ukraine, but about Georgia as well. Then she hugged me and left.
During all this days we were hoping that miracle will happen, but it didn’t. […] Now I realized that by going to Ukraine I was given a chance to hug this talanted, brave, dear woman one last time. My heart is totally broken.