Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, who went missing over a year ago, has died in Russian detention, CNN reported. The 27-year-old disappeared in August 2022 during a reporting mission from a Russian-controlled territory of Ukraine.
The Office of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General said that Moscow informed Ms Roshchyna's family of her detention in April this year, long after her capture. The family was left in the dark for months about her fate.
“I have official documentation from the Russian side confirming the death of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, who was illegally deprived of her liberty by Russia,” Ukraine's human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, said in a statement.
According to a statement by the spokesperson of the Delegation of the European Commission to Ukraine, “She is the thirteenth journalist to be killed since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.” The statement further noted that Ms Roshchyna, a recipient of the “Courage in Journalism Award,” was “determined to bring the truth about Russia's brutal war of aggression and its illegal occupation of Ukraine to the world.”
Ms Roshchyna's fellow journalists said she travelled to the Russian-occupied region to report on the condition of the people living under the occupation. Her colleagues believe she was killed by Russian officials.
“We have every reason to believe that her death was either the result of a deliberate murder or the result of the cruel treatment and violence to which she was subjected during her time in Russian captivity,” read a statement from Ukrainian media professionals, published across several Ukrainian outlets.
The statement noted that Ms Roshchyna was in good health before her imprisonment over a year ago. The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office launched an investigation, treating her death as both a war crime and a premeditated murder.
Evgeniya Motorevskaya, who previously worked with Ms Roshchyna at the Ukrainian media outlet Hromadske, remembered her as a journalist deeply committed to her craft. In a statement published on Hromadske's website, she said using Ms Roshchyna's nickname, “For her, there was nothing more important than journalism. Vika was always where the most important events for the country took place. And she would have continued to do this for many years, but the Russians killed her.”
Petro Yatsenko, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Coordination Center for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, said that Ms Roshchyna was among around 25 Ukrainian journalists currently held in Russian captivity, with several others reported missing.
Russian authorities reportedly told Ukrainian officials that Ms Roshchyna died while being transferred from a detention centre in Taganrog, a city in southern Russia, to Moscow. The transfer was said to be part of preparations for her release in a prisoner exchange.
The detention facility in Taganrog has gained notoriety for its harsh conditions, according to the CNN report. Tetyana Katrychenko, a representative of the Media Initiative for Human Rights, described it as “hell on earth” in a statement. She confirmed that Victoria Roshchyna was held there from at least May to September 2024 when she was subjected to solitary confinement.
