Kaja Kallas Cites Ukrainian Writer Killed in Russian Strike at College of Europe Ceremony
European Commission Vice President and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas paid tribute to the late Ukrainian writer Victoriia Amelina during the opening ceremony of the new academic year at the College of Europe.
The Gaze reports this, referring to the European Audiovisual Service.
Speaking before students and faculty, Kallas quoted from Amelina’s posthumously published book “Looking at Women Who Look at War,” reflecting on how the Ukrainian author transformed from novelist to documentarian of Russian war crimes following the full-scale invasion.
“The book I have just quoted was published after her death. It stands as proof that the pursuit of justice is an individual choice, yet always a collective effort,” Kallas told the audience. “Dear students and young diplomats, the key to lasting peace is the law. Amelina knew this – and as a lawyer, that has always been what the European Union means to me.”
Kallas also emphasized ongoing international efforts to establish a tribunal to hold Russia accountable for launching its war against Ukraine, underlining Europe’s commitment to justice and accountability.
This year, Victoriia Amelina was named the patron of the academic year at the College of Europe, becoming the first Ukrainian ever to hold this symbolic role.
The college, based in Bruges and Natolin, prepares future European leaders in the fields of diplomacy, law, and political governance.
Victoriia Amelina was a Ukrainian writer, human rights advocate, and member of PEN Ukraine who died in June 2023 from injuries sustained in a Russian missile strike on Kramatorsk.
Her debut novel, “The November Syndrome, or Homo Compatiens” (2014), was named among the year’s top ten prose works by the LitAccent–2014 award and later shortlisted for the Valeriy Shevchuk Literary Prize.
Beyond her fiction, Amelina became a prominent voice in Ukraine’s literary and civil society scenes. She founded the New York Literary Festival in the Donetsk region’s town of New York – a project that continues today thanks to community efforts supported by PEN Ukraine, which raised over 500,000 hryvnias after her death.
Amelina was also known for her work with the human rights organization Truth Hounds, documenting evidence of Russian war crimes in liberated territories.
In 2021, Amelina received the Joseph Conrad-Korzeniowski Literary Prize and was later selected for the Harriman Writers’ Residency in Paris, where she planned to continue her work on documenting testimonies of wartime atrocities.
As The Gaze reported earlier, since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the war has claimed the lives of 232 artists and 114 Ukrainian and foreign media workers.