Ukrainian journalist dies in Russian detention, Kiev confirms

A Ukrainian journalist detained by Moscow while reporting from occupied eastern Ukraine has died in Russian detention, a Ukrainian official said Thursday.

Victoria Roshchyna, who would have turned 28 this month, disappeared in August last year after traveling to Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine for a report.

She remained missing until April 2024, when her father received a letter from Moscow’s Defense Ministry saying she was in Russian detention, Ukraine’s main journalists’ union said.

The circumstances of her arrest were not made public and it was not clear where in Russia she was being held.

“Unfortunately, the information about Victoria’s death has been confirmed,” Petro Yatsenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian headquarters for the coordination of prisoners of war, said on Thursday.

“It is too early to talk about the circumstances of the death, we are working to determine them,” he added.

Russian news outlet Mediazona reported that she died while being transferred to Moscow from a prison in Taganrog, near the Ukrainian border.

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Thousands of Ukrainians opposed to Moscow’s rule have been detained in occupied territories since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022. Many of them are being tortured by security forces, according to rights groups.

Ukraine said in May that more than 20 Ukrainian media officials were being held in Russian captivity and negotiations for their return were underway.

Roshchyna worked as a freelancer for several independent news media, including Ukrainska Pravda, and collaborated with the Ukrainian service of the US-funded media outlet Radio Free Europe.

In 2022, she received the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Courage in Journalism award for her reporting from eastern Ukraine.

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