At the initiative of Ms. Isabelle Rome, Ambassador for Human Rights, and in partnership with the Ukrainian Institute in France and the Embassy of Ukraine in France, an event was held at the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs in tribute to Victoria Amelina and all Ukrainian women committed to freedom, justice, and peace.
The ceremony took place in the presence of Oleksandra Matviichuk, human rights and democracy lawyer and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the Ambassador of Ukraine to France, Vadym Omelchenko, and many engaged public figures, including Iryna Dmytrychyn, Ukrainian historian and translator, Bernard-Henri Lévy, writer and filmmaker, and Caroline Fourest, author and journalist.
Isabelle Rome opened the tribute by reminding everyone that human dignity knows no borders, and that after 1,143 days of aggression, France remains firmly committed to standing with Ukraine — economically, militarily, and on the humanitarian front.
Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mariana Betsa, then denounced the central goal of Russia’s war: to destroy Ukraine as a nation and erase its identity. She specifically referred to the deportations of Ukrainian children, forced disappearances, acts of genocide, and systematic attacks against the civilian population — highlighting the largest child abduction operation in contemporary history.
Victoria Amelina was a novelist, but in the face of her country’s invasion, writing was no longer enough. She took action on the ground, working with humanitarian organizations and with Truth Hounds, an NGO that documents evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
On June 27, 2023, a missile struck the restaurant where she was having dinner in Kramatorsk. Victoria succumbed to her injuries a few days later, on July 1. She was 37 years old.
Her final work, Looking at Women Looking at War, published posthumously, is a powerful investigation into the lives of Ukrainian heroines confronted with Russia’s war of aggression.
“The pursuit of justice changed me: I was a novelist and a mother; I became an investigator of war crimes. For over a year, I have been photographing shell craters in the walls of libraries, the rubble of schools and cultural centers; I have been collecting the testimonies of survivors and witnesses of atrocities. I did all this to uncover the truth, preserve memory, and give justice—and lasting peace—a chance.”
— Victoria Amelina
A discussion then brought together Oleksandra Matviichuk, Isabelle Rome, and Caroline Fourest around her book, to keep her fight alive. As Sandrine Treiner, director of Flammarion publishing, so rightly put it: the writer’s voice is already sorely missed.Finally, Oleksandra Matviichuk’s words bear witness to this unshakable determination:
“We will not let evil prevail.”
