A Ukrainian man was sentenced to life in prison on April 4 for his role in helping Russian forces target an attack on a cafe in Kramatorsk in June 2023 that killed 13 people and injured at least 60.
The news was reported by the Prosecutor General's Office.
Russian forces fired two Soviet-era S-300 missiles at Kramatorsk on June 27, 2023. One of them hit a restaurant in the city center, popular with volunteers, journalists, and soldiers, who all often use Kramatorsk as a base of operations in Donetsk Oblast.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported shortly after the attack that it had detained a local man for reportedly helping target the strike.
The man was reportedly in charge of finding out whether the restaurant was working and whether it was busy. The restaurant was full of civilians at the time of the attack.
The well-known writer Victoria Amelina was seriously injured in the strike and later died in the hospital.
Amelina was one of Ukraine's most popular young writers. Her work has been translated into numerous languages, including English, Polish, Italian, Spanish, German, Croatian, Dutch, Czech, and Hungarian.
She also founded the Niu-York Literature Festival in 2021, which took place in the front-line town of Niu-York in Donetsk Oblast. It was postponed in 2022 due to Russia's full-scale invasion.
Kate Tsurkan
