Death in Russian Captivity
A high price for the truth about the Russian war against Ukraine
Victoriya Roschyna was the author of a number of news stories and investigations for the Ukrainian media, writing freelance for outlets such as Ukrainska Pravda (Ukrainian Truth), Hromadske, Ukrainske Radio (Ukrainian Radio), UA Pershy (UA First), Tsenzornet and Radio Liberty/ Radio Free Europe.
Victoriya Roschyna was on the list for returning home. She was listed for POW exchange because she was not military, she was a civilian. Detention of civilians is illegal so her captivity was illegal in itself.
It was not Viktoriya’s first time in Russian captivity. Victoriya had been working in hot spots on the front and in the Russian occupied territories since the beginning of the full scale Russian invasion in 2022. In March 2022 She was detained for 10 days in Russian occupied Berdyansk, Zaporizhzhia region. Among the people who helped free Victoriya was the former chief editor of Hromadske, Evgeniya Motorevska, later the head of investigations for The Kyiv Independent, investigating war crimes in Ukraine. At that time Victoriya was a correspondent for Hromadske.
It was very important for Victoriya to communicate with people who were in the Russian occupied territories. Victoriya saw that as the mission of her life. Those 10 days in her first Russian captivity were extremely difficult for Victoriya. She was interrogated and forced to record a video. It was very painful to record that video. Victoriya was very brave and she refused to make a video. She said she would not do it but in the end she was forced to do it just before she was freed. She had to make that video which turned out to be very neutral, stating that she had no complaints against the Russians.
Despite the traumatic experience of her first Russian captivity Victoriya continued to go to the Russian occupied territories as she believed that she could not write about events she did not see with her own eyes. It was there on the Russian occupied territories that she talked to people and then wrote about their lives and experiences. It was her mission as a journalist to tell the truth of what was going on the occupied territories and nothing more important for Victoriya in her journalistic life. It was like throwing down a gauntlet to those who occupy foreign territories, those who capture innocent people, those who torture the innocent civilians, those who abuse and brutalise innocent people and those who kill innocent people. Some of her reports were not signed with her name for the security reasons.
Victoriya was a professional journalist. She was always looking for the truth and was not just a risk taker.
In July 2023, approximately a month before her second and fatal captivity, Victoriya gave an interview for The Voice of America. In her interview with Kseniya Tyrkova she talked about her investigation into the so called private armies of the occupying authorities in the Crimea.
On 3rd of August 2023 Victoriya went missing according to her colleagues somewhere on the Russian occupied territory of Zaporizhzhia region. We know now that she had decided to go there to get some more material for her investigation. It was a secret mission and very few people knew about it. She was a freelancer. It is practically impossible for a journalist to work in the Russian occupied territories and Victoriya’s colleagues knew very little about the circumstances of her second Russian captivity.
In May 2024 the Russian authorities admitted for the first time that they had detained Victoriya and that she had been kept in Russia. This information was also confirmed by the International Red Cross Committee.
Victoriya was kept in Detention Centre No. 2 in Taganrog, in the Rostov region of the Russian Federation. One of the most notorious places for torture of Ukrainian POWs.
The Russians did not provide any information about the conditions in which Victoriya was kept or the cause of her death. Now we know that Victoriya died when she was being transported to Moscow before her return home. She was 27 and a healthy young woman before her captivity.
In the official letter from the Russian Ministry of Defence received by Victoriya’s father it is stated that Victoriya died on 19th of September 2024. She had been detained in Russian captivity for over a year.
The president of the Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Steven Capus, called for the prosecution of those who kept Ukrainian journalist Victoriya Roschyna in Russian captivity. Her illegal detention and tragic death show the high price journalists pay for reporting the truth about the Russian war against Ukraine.
Unfortunately, the bodies of the Ukrainian prisoners are returned to Ukraine in such a state that it is impossible to find out the true causes of death.