The award-winning freelance journalist was known for reporting on life in Russia-occupied Ukraine.
An award-winning Ukrainian journalist who wrote first-hand about life in Russian-occupied Ukraine has died in Russian custody.
Viktoria Roshchina, 27, worked as a freelancer for Ukrainian media outlets Ukraiska Pravda and Hromadske Radio, as well as the US-funded Radio Liberty.
She went missing in August last year after visiting Russia-occupied territory in Ukraine on a reporting trip.
The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed in a letter to her father in May that she was being held in Russian custody.
“Unfortunately, information regarding Victoria’s death has been confirmed,” Petro Yatsenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian POW Coordination Headquarters, told Ukrainian television.
He said an investigation into how she died was continuing.
Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a statement that Russia informed Roshchina’s family on Thursday that she died on September 19.
Jeanne Cavalier, head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said in a statement: “Despite repeated requests from her family, the Ukrainian authorities and RSF, the Russian authorities have not provided any information regarding her detention. No,” he said. “They must reveal all the circumstances surrounding her detention and death.”
Horrifying and tragic news: Viktoria Roshchina, a Ukrainian journalist who was kidnapped in occupied Ukraine, has died in a Russian prison. It happened on September 19th, but her father only received the news today. She had been on hunger strike for days… pic.twitter.com/FHXc5rii2m
— Anastasia Magazova 🌻 (@a_magazova) October 10, 2024
Roshchina vividly described life in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and in eastern Ukraine, occupied by Russian-funded separatists.
She also documented the nearly three-month defense of Mariupol port after Moscow launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
She was initially detained for 10 days by the Russians shortly after Russia began the war.
Spokesman for Ukraine’s HUR Information Directorate, Andriy Yusov, told public broadcaster Suspirin that Roshchina was taking part in a prisoner exchange program and was scheduled to be transferred from detention in Taganrog, near the Ukrainian border, to Moscow. Ta.
In May, Ukraine announced that more than 20 Ukrainian media workers were being held in Russian custody and negotiations were underway for their return.
RSF said Roshchina was the 13th journalist to die as a result of his work since the Russian invasion.
