‘She knew the risks. She did it anyway': The brutal detention and death of a young Ukrainian journalist

The Age

01-05-2025

Warning: Graphic content
London: A Ukrainian journalist was tortured and killed while in Russian custody, according to a damning investigation, marking the first confirmed death of a Ukrainian reporter in Russian hands since its full-scale invasion began in 2022.
The body of 27-year-old Viktoriia Roshchyna was returned to Ukraine in February, nearly five months after Russian authorities said she had died during a prison transfer. A forensic examination found signs of brutal torture and mutilation, raising fresh accusations of war crimes by Russian forces occupying parts of south-eastern Ukraine.
Roshchyna disappeared in August 2023 after travelling to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region to investigate the detention and torture of civilians.
A joint report by Paris-based Forbidden Stories and 12 international media partners, released on Tuesday, found that the young journalist had been held in at least two notorious detention facilities – Berdiansk Penal Colony No. 77 and Taganrog Detention Centre No. 2 – both linked to systemic abuse.
Ukrainian prosecutors said her body bore signs of severe mistreatment, including abrasions, haemorrhages, a broken rib, injuries to her neck and suspected electric burns on her feet.
'The body also showed evidence of an autopsy conducted prior to its return, and multiple internal organs were missing,' Yuriy Belousov, head of the War Crimes Unit at Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office, said. 'This suggests a possible attempt to obscure the real cause of death and cover up a war crime.'
The official Russian explanation, communicated in a letter to Roshchyna's parents, claimed she died on September 19, 2024, while being transferred from Taganrog to Moscow. No independent verification of that account has been made. Russia's Defence Ministry, Federal Penitentiary Service and FSB did not respond to requests for comment.