Latest news with #ViktoriiaRoshchyna
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ukrainian journalist who died in Russian captivity buried in Kyiv
Viktoriia Roshchyna, the Ukrainian journalist who died in Russian captivity last year, has been buried in Kyiv, in a ceremony attended by relatives and colleagues who paid tribute to her singular professional courage and the importance of her work. Roshchyna was reporting on Russia's systematic policy of extrajudicial detention and torture in occupied parts of Ukraine, before falling victim to it herself. She died at the age of 27 last year in murky circumstances, after more than a year in Russian captivity. Her body was returned earlier this year with some of the internal organs missing. On Friday, an Orthodox church service at the golden-domed St Michael's Cathedral in central Kyiv was followed by speeches on Maidan, the city's central square. Mourners included Roshchyna's editors and journalistic colleagues, diplomats, MPs and members of the public who came to pay their respects. She was later buried at the Baikove cemetery. Colleagues described Roshchyna as a passionate and driven journalist, who pursued her work with such an intensity that she was often difficult to manage. She refused to take no for an answer and insisted she had to see the situation in occupied territory for herself. Editors, reluctant to accept the risks of her self-commissioned assignments, also knew that her work was shining a unique light on one of the darkest and hardest-to-access aspects of Russia's war. 'She is the bravest person, the bravest journalist, I have ever met in my life. That's not an exaggeration, it's a fact,' said Sevgil Musayeva, the editor in chief of Ukrainska Pravda, one of the outlets for which Roshchyna worked for, in a speech on Maidan. 'Once she started something, she never quit,' said the Ukrainian journalist Angelina Kariakina, who worked with Roshchyna at the Hromadske news website. 'If she started a case, a story, we editors never had to remind her that something was happening further in the story. She simply never abandoned her characters or her stories.' Roshchyna was taken captive briefly in Russian-controlled territory in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion in spring 2022, but was subsequently released. However, she continued to travel to occupied areas to bring back stories of life under Russian control, and was taken captive again in August 2023. 'Viktoriia was a person who didn't know the word 'no'. Everyone explained that she shouldn't go to occupied territory. No editors were ready to take responsibility for this, but she still understood that this was her mission, and did it,' said Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, an MP and the head of the Ukrainian parliament's committee on freedom of speech. 'She was genuine, and genuine people often burn with intensity, and with that fire they ignite everyone around them, but very often this passion costs them the most precious thing – their health and their life,' he added. Roshchyna's death in captivity was investigated by the Viktoriia Project, a consortium including the Guardian, Ukrainska Pravda and other reporting partners, earlier this year. For months after her disappearance, there was no news of Roshchyna, who was held, like many Ukrainian detainees, without contact with the outside world. It was only in May 2024 that Russian authorities admitted, in a letter to her father, that she was being held in captivity. Roshchyna was last seen alive on 8 September 2024, and there were rumours she was due to be included in a prisoner exchange. Ukrainian investigators are still working to establish exactly where and how she died. Sources close to the official Ukrainian investigation disclosed to the Viktoriia Project that examination of Roshchyna's body after its repatriation earlier this year showed the hyoid bone in her neck was broken, damage which can occur during strangulation. The body was also returned with the brain, eyes and larynx removed. Roshchyna was posthumously awarded the Order of Freedom by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, earlier this month. She received it 'for her unwavering belief that freedom will overcome everything,' Zelenskyy wrote on X. Roshchyna spent nearly nine months imprisoned at pre-trial detention centre number 2 in the city of Taganrog, which was repurposed as a holding centre for Ukrainian detainees and has been identified as one of the worst places for torture and mistreatment. Earlier this week, Ukraine's national police service and its chief war crimes prosecutor announced that Aleksandr Shtoda, the head of the facility, had been formally placed under investigation. At the funeral, Roshchyna's editors vowed to continue investigating the circumstances of her death and the specific people who were responsible. 'Our task is not to leave the theme of the occupied territories, however hard it is,' said Kariakina. 'The best way to remember her is not just with words and memories of the work she already did, but to continue this work.'
Globe and Mail
2 days ago
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
Mourners gather in Kyiv for funeral of journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna
The bells of St. Michael's golden-domed monastery rang out Ukraine's national anthem over central Kyiv on Friday as mourners gathered to say goodbye to journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna. Inside the cathedral, family, friends, colleagues and strangers stood shoulder to shoulder for the funeral service. When the service ended, the hearse bearing her body began its journey toward Independence Square, accompanied by a long column of people. 'Glory to the heroes! Glory to Viktoriia!' the crowd chanted, their voices carrying down Mykhailivska Street. The street fell silent; passersby stopped, some bowing their heads. Ms. Roshchyna, who had built her career covering crime and human rights, turned her focus after Russia's full-scale invasion to reporting from occupied territories. The 27-year-old journalist disappeared on Aug. 3, 2023, while on assignment in Russian-controlled areas. Nearly one year later, in May, 2024, Russian authorities confirmed she had been detained. In October, officials said she had died during a prison transfer from Taganrog to Moscow. Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence said Ms. Roshchyna had been on a list for a prisoner exchange. Sevgil Musaieva, editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian online outlet Ukrainska Pravda, where Ms. Roshchyna had been freelancing since the early days of the Russian invasion described her as someone who 'served the public with absolute dedication and courage.' Despite warnings to stay away from Russian-occupied areas, she 'kept returning, determined to ensure that the stories of people living under temporary occupation were heard.' Nuclear threats, Ukraine's fate cast long shadow as Putin, Trump prepare to meet Deadliest Russian attack in a year kills 31 in Kyiv, including five children Her body was returned to Ukraine months later. Forensic experts documented evidence of extensive torture, surgical incisions, and the absence of her brain, eyes and part of her trachea, according to the Viktoriia Project, an investigation by Paris-based Forbidden Stories. Ms. Roschyna preferred to work alone, relying only on herself. 'She began learning photography, video, even graphic design,' said Angelina Kariakina, the former head of online news outlet Hromadske, where Ms. Roschyna worked as a reporter for about five years. 'She was loved, and still is.' 'I never heard her say she was hungry, or that she wanted to sleep. She never took vacations or days off,' Ms. Kariakina said. The only thing the late journalist ever complained about, Ms. Kariakina added, was limited access to information. For Ms. Roshchyna, her most recent Russian captivity was not her first. In March, 2022, while reporting from the then newly-occupied city of Berdyansk, she was detained by the Russian Federal Security Service. She was held for 10 days, coerced into recording a video statement, and eventually released. Her dispatches from occupied territories earned international recognition. That same year, her work was shortlisted for the Courage in Journalism Awards by the International Women's Media Foundation. In the summer of 2023, Ms. Roshchyna reported on the case of two 16-year-old boys — Tigran Ohanesyan and Mykyta Khanganov — who were shot and killed in Berdyansk. 'She was relentless,' said Sevgil Musaieva, editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian online outlet Ukrainska Pravda. 'She demanded that the Russian-installed authorities return their bodies.' Ms. Musaieva noted that colleagues and friends had pleaded with Ms. Roshchyna not to travel to the occupied zone. 'We told her that reporting on the occupied territories was still possible without going there physically,' she recalled. 'But Viktoriia wouldn't listen.' Among those who came to bid farewell to Ms. Roshchyna on Friday was Russian journalist Viktoria Ivleva — a woman who had first met the young Ukrainian reporter during court hearings for captured Ukrainian sailors in Moscow. Their last encounter was in the summer of 2022, in the embattled city of Lysychansk, where Ms. Roshchyna was covering the Russian invasion. 'I told her, 'Vika, come with us. It's getting too dangerous,'' Ms. Ivleva recalled. 'But she said, 'No, I'll stay a little longer.' And I knew that this 'little longer' kept stretching every time,' she said. Colleagues of Ms. Roshchyna say their mission now is clear: to identify those responsible for her death and ensure they are held to account. On August 7, Ukrainian police announced that a former head of Remand Prison No. 2 in Taganrog, Rostov Region, has been formally charged in connection with Ms. Roshchyna's death. Investigators say the official directly ordered his subordinates to torture the journalist while she was held in custody. According to police, Ms. Roshchyna was subjected to systemic abuse during her detention — including physical punishment, threats, psychological pressure, and severe restrictions on access to medical care, food, drinking water, or the ability to sleep or sit during the day. Authorities documented multiple violations of international humanitarian law, gathered witness testimony, reconstructed the chronology of her illegal detention and transfer, and confirmed the conditions she endured. The investigation remains ongoing.
Perth Now
2 days ago
- Politics
- Perth Now
Captured Ukrainian reporter laid to rest in Kyiv
A brave award-winning Ukrainian journalist, who died in Russian custody, has been buried in Kyiv almost two years after being arrested. On Friday, dozens of relatives, friends and colleagues attended the funeral service for Viktoriia Roshchyna at St Michael's Cathedral before heading to Independence Square in the centre of the Ukrainian capital. The coffin was closed, an unusual practice in the Orthodox country. "She is the bravest person, the bravest journalist, I have ever met in my life," Ukrainska Pravda editor-in-chief Sevgil Musayeva said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy honoured the journalist posthumously with the Order of Freedom. "Viktoriia was one of those who spoke the truth about the war. She worked on the frontlines and in temporarily occupied territories, risking her life," he wrote on X. The 27-year-old was arrested while researching in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine in August 2023. Ukrainian and international media outlets investigated her detention and subsequent death. Her death was announced in October 2024, with the date of death given by the Russian side as 19 September 2024. According to the Ukrainian public prosecutor's office, the body showed signs of torture and was only returned to Ukraine in February. A DNA test proved her identity. Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian invasion for more than three years. Ukrainian investigators repeatedly accuse Russia of torturing prisoners of war and even killing them in custody. Human Rights Watch has described Russia's treatment of the young reporter as "abhorrent".
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ukrainian journalist who died in Russian captivity buried in Kyiv
Viktoriia Roshchyna, the Ukrainian journalist who died in Russian captivity last year, has been buried in Kyiv, in a ceremony attended by relatives and colleagues who paid tribute to her singular professional courage and the importance of her work. Roshchyna was reporting on Russia's systematic policy of extrajudicial detention and torture in occupied parts of Ukraine, before falling victim to this herself. She died at the age of 27 last year in murky circumstances, after more than a year in Russian captivity. Her body was returned earlier this year with some of the internal organs missing. On Friday, an Orthodox church service at the golden-domed St Michael's Cathedral in central Kyiv was followed by speeches on Maidan, the city's central square. Mourners included Roshchyna's editors and journalistic colleagues, diplomats, MPs and members of the public who came to pay their respects. She was later buried at the Baikove cemetery. Colleagues described Roshchyna as a passionate and driven journalist, who pursued her work with such an intensity that she was often difficult to manage. She refused to take no for an answer and insisted she had to see the situation in occupied territory for herself. Editors, reluctant to accept the risks of her self-commissioned assignments, also knew that her work was shining a unique light on one of the darkest and hardest-to-access aspects of Russia's war. 'She is the bravest person, the bravest journalist, I have ever met in my life. That's not an exaggeration, it's a fact,' said Sevgil Musayeva, the editor in chief of Ukrainska Pravda, one of the outlets for which Roshchyna wrote, in a speech on Maidan. 'Once she started something, she never quit,' said the Ukrainian journalist Angelina Kariakina, who worked with Roshchyna at the Hromadske news website. 'If she started a case, a story, we editors never had to remind her that something was happening further in the story. She simply never abandoned her characters or her stories.' Roshchyna was taken captive briefly in Russian-controlled territory in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion in spring 2022, but was subsequently released. However, she continued to travel to occupied areas to bring back stories of life under Russian control, and was taken captive again in August 2023. 'Viktoriia was a person who didn't know the word 'no'. Everyone explained that she shouldn't go to occupied territory. No editors were ready to take responsibility for this, but she still understood that this was her mission, and did it,' said Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, an MP and the head of the Ukrainian parliament's committee on freedom of speech. 'She was genuine, and genuine people often burn with intensity, and with that fire they ignite everyone around them, but very often this passion costs them the most precious thing – their health and their life,' he added. Roshchyna's death in captivity was investigated by the Viktoriia Project, a consortium including the Guardian, Ukrainska Pravda and other reporting partners, earlier this year. For months after her disappearance, there was no news of Roshchyna, who was held, like many Ukrainian detainees, without contact with the outside world. It was only in May 2024 that Russian authorities admitted, in a letter to her father, that she was being held in captivity. Roshchyna was last seen alive on 8 September 2024, and there were rumours she was due to be included in a prisoner exchange. Ukrainian investigators are still working to establish exactly where and how she died. Sources close to the official Ukrainian investigation disclosed to the Viktoriia Project that examination of Roshchyna's body after its repatriation earlier this year showed the hyoid bone in her neck was broken, damage which can occur during strangulation. The body was also returned with the brain, eyes and larynx removed. Roshchyna was posthumously awarded the Order of Freedom by President Zelenskyy earlier this month. She received it 'for her unwavering belief that freedom will overcome everything,' Zelenskyy wrote on X. Roshchyna spent nearly nine months imprisoned at pre-trial detention centre number 2 in the city of Taganrog, which was repurposed as a holding centre for Ukrainian detainees and has been identified as one of the worst places for torture and mistreatment. Earlier this week, Ukraine's national police service and its chief war crimes prosecutor announced that Aleksandr Shtoda, the head of the facility, had been formally placed under investigation. At the funeral, Roshchyna's editors vowed to continue investigating the circumstances of her death and the specific people who were responsible. 'Our task is not to leave the theme of the occupied territories, however hard it is,' said Kariakina. 'The best way to remember her is not just with words and memories of the work she already did, but to continue this work.'
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia's Wagner Group abused civilians in secret prisons in Mali, investigation finds
Since 2021, Russian Wagner mercenaries have detained, tortured, and forcibly disappeared hundreds of civilians in secret prisons across Mali, according to a joint investigation published on June 12 by Forbidden Stories, France 24, Le Monde, and IStories. The investigation found that mercenaries with Russia's Wagner Group, working alongside Malian government forces, had systematically abducted and detained civilians, holding them in prisons at former United Nations bases and military bases across Mali. Drawing on eyewitness accounts and satellite imagery, the investigation identified six detention centers where Wagner held civilians between 2022 and 2024. The total number of Wagner detention centers in Mali is likely to be much higher. Prisoners were subjected to systematic torture – including beatings, waterboarding, electric shocks, starvation, and confinement in sweltering metal containers. The investigation was carried out as part of the Viktoriia project, in memory of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who was captured by Russian forces in 2023 while investigating the illegal detention of civilians in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine. She was killed in Russian captivity in 2024. The Russian mercenary group, known for its deployment in Ukraine and short-lived rebellion against the Kremlin in 2023, has a strong presence across the African continent, backing Russian business interests and Moscow-friendly regimes. The mercenaries have been particularly active in Mali since late 2021 and have been accused of perpetrating war crimes. In December 2024, Human Rights Watch accused Wagner mercenaries and Malian government forces of deliberately killing 32 civilians. The Wagner Group recently announced its withdrawal from Mali, where it fought alongside Malian government forces to fend off Islamist insurgents. Wagner has been active across the African continent for years and has been previously accused of committing human rights abuses. Read also: Ukraine war latest: Ukraine strikes targets in Russia, including gunpowder plant We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
