Brutal Silence: The Death of Ukrainian Journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna in Russian Custody

October 14, 2024 – Russia/Ukraine –

27-year-old Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna was confirmed dead while detained by Russian authorities. She had disappeared in August 2023 while reporting on torture in Russian-controlled southern Ukraine and was later transferred into Russian prisons, where her fate remained unknown for months.

Roshchyna was the first Ukrainian journalist to die in Russian captivity and one of twelve killed due to their work during the conflict since 2022. The Russian Defense Ministry notified her father that she had died on September 19, 2024, and by February 2025, her body was returned to Ukraine amid a prisoner exchange.

Investigations revealed horrendous treatment: her body bore signs of torture—abrasions, a broken rib, neck injuries, electric shock marks on her feet—and crucial organs (including brain, eyes, and part of her trachea) were missing, likely removed to conceal the cause of death. These findings, backed by Ukrainian prosecutors and independent forensic analysis, prompted calls for accountability under international humanitarian and war crimes law.

Roshchyna had worked as a freelance photojournalist for Ukrainska Pravda and Radio Free Europe, earning the 2022 Courage in Journalism Award. Her coverage exposed the mistreatment of Ukrainian civilians and prisoners in informal detention centers. According to Forbidden Stories’ Viktoriia Project, she was detained in August 2023, secretly moved between informal camps and formal prisons—including Taganrog—and died during a planned transfer to Lefortovo prison in Moscow.

Her death sparked a major international investigation. The Viktoriia Project, backed by the Guardian and others, documented Russia’s “dark detention” system using her final work and testimonies from sources she had interviewed. Ukrainian authorities now treat her death as a potential murder and war crime, urging global attention and legal accountability.

Roshchyna’s death marks a harrowing milestone: the first confirmed journalist to die under Russian detention. It underscores the extreme dangers faced by reporters in the Ukraine war and the urgent need for international scrutiny of ongoing abuses in Russia’s penal and detention networks.