Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna dies in Russian prison (to be officially verified by Ukraine)
Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, who went missing in the temporarily occupied territories on August 3, 2023, has died in Russian custody, chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, reported in a Facebook post.
UPDATE. Yurchyshyn later deleted the post and made another one saying he was waiting for confirmation from official sources. He has since deleted the second post as well.
According to Yurchyshyn, Viktoria's father received a notice about his daughter's death.
“As officially reported by the Russian authorities, this happened as she was being moved from Taganrog to Moscow. I just spoke with Mr. Volodymyr. In addition to expressing my condolences, I promised that we would do everything in our power to ensure that the murderers of his daughter are punished as they deserve. The talented journalist was taken hostage by the Russians in August 2023. And now they have killed her,” Yurchyshyn wrote.
Updated. According to a letter from the Russian Ministry of Defense, received by her family on October 10, Viktoria died on September 19.
Russia previously admitted having detained Viktoria Roshchyna, who went missing in the temporarily occupied territories on August 3, 2023. Viktoria was in the territory of Russia.
The journalist's father Volodymyr Roshchyn received a letter to this effect from Russia's Ministry of Defense, dated April 17.
Viktoria's relatives had previously submitted a query to the Russia-installed prosecutor's office in Mariupol, which reported that no charges had been pressed against her. Letters to the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, the Investigative Committee, and the Commissiner remained unanswered.
Previously
Viktoria Roshchyna went missing during a trip to the occupied territories on August 3, 2023. She set off from Ukraine to Poland on July 27 and was expected to reach Russian-occupied territories in eastern Ukraine—via Russia—three days later.
When her family last spoke to her on August 3 she told them she had made it through days of border checks but did not tell them exactly where she was.
Viktoria had been detained in the past. According to Ukraine's Prosecutor General, Viktoria was detained by Russia's FSB and Russian troops in occupied Berdyansk on March 15, 2022.
The Russian forces released Viktoria Roshchyna on March 21, 2022.
Viktoria Roshchyna was on the Institute of Mass Information's list of 30 Ukrainian journalists imprisoned by Russia.
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