Ukrainian journalist who documented Russian occupation dies in prison

Viktoriia Roshchyna disappeared in August 2023 in a part of Ukraine now occupied by Russian forces.

It took Russian authorities nine months to confirm that the journalist had been detained. They gave no reason.

This week, her father received a brief letter from the Ministry of Defense in Moscow informing him that Victoria had died aged 27.

The journalist’s body will be returned as part of an exchange organized by Russia and Ukraine for soldiers killed on the battlefield, the document said. The date of death was September 19.

Again, no explanation.

This weekend, friends gathered at Maidan Square in central Kiev to commemorate Victoria. They shuffled to their seats on the steps with her photo in hand, their young faces smiling at the small crowd.

“She had tremendous courage,” one woman began in tribute.

“We will miss her terribly,” said another, turning away with tears filling her eyes.

Victoria’s story is a snapshot of Ukrainian life that you can’t get anywhere else.

Reporting from occupied areas of Ukraine was extremely dangerous, but her colleagues remember how eager she was to go there, even when she was first detained and held captive for ten days.

“Her parents called us once to stop deploying her, but we never deployed her!” recalled one of her former bosses.

“All her editors tried to stop her. But it was impossible.

The young reporter eventually became a freelancer in order to deploy herself, and when she returned, newspapers would buy her stories.

Most strikingly, she never used a pseudonym, although she wrote publicly about “occupied” territory and called those who collaborated with the Russians “traitors.”

“She wanted to provide information about how these cities lived under siege by Russian troops,” Sevgil Musayeva, editor-in-chief of Ukraine’s Pravda newspaper, told the BBC.

“She’s just amazing.”

Victoria’s father previously described how she traveled through Poland and Russia to occupied Ukraine last July.

A week later, she called to say she had been interrogated at the border for several days.

All we know for sure after that is that, by May, she was being held at the Second Detention Center in Taganrog in southern Russia — a facility so notorious for its brutal treatment of many Ukrainians that some have dubbed it the “Russian Guantanamo.”

Another Ukrainian citizen released from Taganrog last month told Viktoria’s family that she met the journalist on September 8 or 9, according to the Media Human Rights Initiative.

Then we have reason to hope.

“I am 100 percent sure that she will come back on September 13 of this year. My sources gave me 100 percent guarantee,” said Musaieva from Ukraine’s Pravda newspaper.

She was told Victoria would be included in one of the regular prisoner exchanges planned by Ukraine and Russia in the middle of last month.

“So what happened to her in prison? Why didn’t she come home?

Victoria and another Ukrainian woman were both moved, but neither was included in the prisoner exchange.

“That means she was taken somewhere else,” said Media Initiatives Director Tetyana Katrychenko. “They said it was to Lefortovo. Why there? We don’t know.

She said this was not normal practice before the exchange.

Moscow’s Lefortovo prison is run by Russia’s FSB security service and is used to detain those accused of espionage and serious crimes against the state.

“Maybe they took her there to start some kind of court proceedings or investigation. This happened to other civilians who were taken from Kherson and Melitopol,” Tetyana said.

The BBC understands Victoria’s father spoke to her in prison on August 30.

At some point she initiated a hunger strike, but that day her father urged her to start eating again and she agreed.

“This needs to be investigated. It also means that we will partly blame her and not that we should blame the Russian Federation,” Tetyana warned.

Ukrainian intelligence services have confirmed Victoria’s death and the prosecutor general’s office has changed the criminal case from illegal detention to murder.

Victoria has never been charged with any crime in Russia and the circumstances of her detention are unknown.

“A civilian journalist… was captured by Russia. And then Russia sent a letter saying she was dead?” Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Yurchyshyn told the BBC in Kiev.

“This is killing. Just killing hostages. I don’t know what else to say.

Russia has yet to comment.

Since Russia began its full-scale invasion, large numbers of civilians have been taken away from areas of Ukraine that Moscow has occupied and controlled.

Like Victoria’s family, desperate relatives have little idea of ​​their whereabouts or health, or whether they will ever return home.

So far, the Media Initiative has compiled a list of 1,886 names.

“There are all kinds of people here, including veterans, police officers and local officials like mayors,” Tetiana said.

“Of course, there may be more that we don’t know.”

Lawyers and the Red Cross are inaccessible, and even if someone’s location can be confirmed, getting them home is nearly impossible: civilians are rarely exchanged.

Victoria’s friends and colleagues say they won’t rest until they find out what happened.

“Her life was her work,” said Angelina Karyakina, a former editor at Hromadske. “It’s rare to find someone so determined.”

“I’m pretty sure the way she wanted us to remember her was not to stand here and cry, but to remember her dignity,” she said.

“I think it’s important for us reporters to find out what she was doing — and finish her story.”