The award-winning freelance journalist was recognized for her reporting on life in Russian-occupied Ukraine.
An award-winning Ukrainian journalist who wrote firsthand accounts of life in Russian-occupied Ukraine has died in detention in Russia.
Victoria Roshchyna, who was 27, labored freelance for Ukrainian media retailers Ukrainska Pravda and Hromadske Radio, in addition to for US-funded Radio Liberty.
She went lacking in August final yr after she travelled to Russian-occupied elements of Ukraine on a reporting journey.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence acknowledged in a letter to her father in Might that she was in Russian custody.
“Sadly, details about Victoria’s demise has been confirmed,” Petro Yatsenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s prisoners of conflict coordination headquarters, advised Ukrainian tv.
He mentioned investigations had been persevering with into how she died.
Media rights group Reporters With out Borders (RSF) mentioned in a press release that Russia knowledgeable Roshchyna’s household on Thursday that she had died on September 19.
“The Russian authorities have by no means supplied any details about her detention, regardless of repeated requests from her household, the Ukrainian authorities, and RSF,” Jeanne Cavalier, head of RSF’s Jap Europe and Central Asia desk, mentioned in a press release. “They need to make clear all of the circumstances surrounding her detention and demise.”
A horrible tragic information: Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, who was kidnapped within the occupied territories of Ukraine, has died in a Russian jail. It has occurred on September nineteenth, however her father obtained the information solely right now. She was on starvation strike for a lot of days, many… pic.twitter.com/FHXc5rii2m
— Anastasia Magazova 🌻 (@a_magazova) October 10, 2024
Roshchyna wrote vivid accounts of life in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, in addition to in areas of jap Ukraine seized by Russian-funded separatists.
She additionally documented the practically three-month defence of the port of Mariupol after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
She was initially detained by the Russians for 10 days, shortly after the nation launched into its conflict.
A spokesperson for Ukraine’s HUR Intelligence Directorate, Andriy Yusov, advised public broadcaster Suspilne that Roshchyna had been on a proposed prisoner trade and was attributable to be transferred to Moscow from detention in Taganrog close to the Ukrainian border.
Ukraine mentioned in Might greater than two dozen Ukrainian media employees had been being held in Russian captivity and that negotiations for his or her return had been underneath means.
RSF mentioned Roshchyna was the thirteenth journalist to die on account of their work because the Russian invasion.
