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Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ukraine brings back body of journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna tortured in Russian captivity, official says
The body of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who died after torture in Russian captivity, was brought back to Ukraine in late February, Deputy Interior Minister Leonid Tymchenko said in an interview with published on April 24. "She was identified through DNA testing," Tymchenko said. Roshchyna, 27, disappeared in August 2023 while reporting from Ukraine's Russian-occupied territories, with Moscow admitting her detention the following year. Ukrainian officials confirmed Roshchyna's death on Oct. 10, 2024, but said that the circumstances were still under investigation. Russia did not hand over her body for about five months. According to Russia, Roshchyna died on Sept. 19, 2024. The Media Initiative for Human Rights, a Ukrainian NGO, reported that Roshchyna had been held in at least two notorious Russian prisons: the penal colony n. 77 in Berdiansk in occupied Ukraine and the detention center n. 2 in Russia's Taganrog. Both facilities are known for the use of torture against prisoners. Roshchyna was tortured with electric shocks while in Russian captivity, Ukrainian investigative journalism outlet reported in early March, citing an unnamed witness in the Taganrog detention center. There were also cuts on Roshchyna's arms after interrogations, the witness said. The journalist lost weight and weighed up to 30 kilograms, according to the source. Previously, in March 2022, Roshchyna was detained for 10 days by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers while leaving Berdiansk in the direction of Mariupol. As a condition of her release, she was forced to record a video saying Russian forces had saved her life. Although Roshchyna's body is said to have been returned in late February, Ukrainian journalists said in March that her body had not yet been retrieved at the time. Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, a lawmaker and chair of the parliamentary committee on freedom of speech, said on April 24 that the body's return was not announced for so long due to uncertainty about the identity. "Given the torture and the condition of her body, Roshchyna's family requested not one, but several DNA examinations," Yurchyshyn wrote on Facebook. "As far as I know, the examinations were carried out not only in Ukraine but also abroad to ensure that it was Viktoriia." Read also: Journalist Viktoria Roshchyna receives posthumous human rights award We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Yahoo
Journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna was tortured in Russian captivity
Investigators of the publication found that Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who died in 2024, had been brutally tortured in Russian captivity: she had stab wounds on her body, was electrocuted, and the staff of the Russian colony where she was held hid her from inspections. Source: investigation by Details: journalists, together with Reporters Without Borders and colleagues from Suspilne and Hraty news agencies, found out that the Russians first captured Viktoriia and held her in torture chambers in the occupied territory of Zaporizhzhia Oblast and later transferred her to Taganrog. Prosecutors say that Roshchyna was held in prison without probable cause. Her cellmate said that the journalist was first held in Enerhodar (investigators confirmed this information from another source), then in Melitopol. These are unauthorised places of detention set up by Russians on the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine (TOT). Her cellmate also said that Viktoriia had been tortured and that the journalist had had stab wounds on her body when she arrived after being held on the TOT. In addition to the stab wounds, Roshchyna had been electrocuted, and her cellmate said that the current could have been connected to her ears. Over time, the journalist began to lose weight rapidly, refusing to eat and constantly asking the jailers for help. When the detention centre staff noticed that Roshchyna was losing weight, the head of the colony came to her cell and talked to her. She kept insisting that she should be released, exchanged as a prisoner of war or deported. Her cellmate said that the Russian Human Rights Commissioner inspected their detention. Roshchyna was hidden from the inspection and transferred to another stock in a locked room. The journalist was last seen on 8 September 2024, when she was taken out of her cell in an unknown direction. Read Viktoria Roshchyna's writing on Ukrainska Pravda Background: Roshchyna left Ukraine for Poland on 25 July 2023 to travel to the occupied territory. She planned to reach the occupied part of Ukraine's east via Russia in three days. Roshchyna disappeared on 3 August 2023 in the TOT from where she was reporting. Russia admitted for the first time in May 2024 that they had detained Roshchyna. The Russian Ministry of Defence sent a letter of confirmation to her father, Volodymyr Roshchyn. On 10 October 2024, Petro Yatsenko, the head of the press service of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, said during the 24/7 national joint newscast that Viktoriia Roshchyna had died in Russian custody. Defence Intelligence of Ukraine said that she was to be brought back to Ukraine in the near future. On 11 October, the Office of the Prosecutor General reported that the criminal proceedings initiated over Roshchyna's disappearance had been reclassified as a war crime combined with premeditated murder. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
