Viktoriia Roshchyna

Viktoriia Volodymyrivna Roshchyna was a Ukrainian journalist specializing in crime, court reporting, human rights and war coverage. She was born on October 6, 1996, in Zaporizhzhia and began working in journalism while still very young. She worked for Ukrainian Radio, the public television channel UA:Pershyi and for more than five years at Hromadske. She also contributed to Ukrainska Pravda, Crimea.Realities and other outlets. In 2022, the International Women’s Media Foundation awarded her its Courage in Journalism Award.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion, Roshchyna repeatedly traveled to occupied Ukrainian territories to report. Russian forces had already detained her in Berdiansk in March 2022 for approximately ten days. After her release, she publicly described that detention.

In the summer of 2023, Roshchyna again traveled toward Russian-occupied territory to investigate the situation of civilians and places of detention. Her family last spoke with her on August 3, 2023, after which contact was lost.

In April 2024, the Russian Ministry of Defence formally acknowledged in a letter to her father that Roshchyna was being held in Russia. At the same time, an earlier response from occupation prosecutors in Mariupol stated that no criminal case had been opened against her. No publicly documented criminal charge or court judgment against Roshchyna has been identified.

In October 2024, her family was informed of her death. Russian documents give September 19, 2024 as the date of death. Later investigations and testimony from former detainees indicate that Roshchyna had been transferred from Taganrog to Detention Centre No. 3 in Kizel, Perm region, shortly before she died.

Former detainees told Reporters Without Borders and Ukrainian journalists that she had become extremely thin and described beatings and other forms of abuse. These are witness accounts and investigative findings, not conclusions reached in a Russian court.

Russia returned Roshchyna’s body to Ukraine in February 2025. Ukrainian prosecutors reported multiple injuries and evidence being examined in connection with possible torture. Because of the condition of the body, investigators initially could not establish a definitive cause of death. Later investigative reporting also raised questions about missing internal organs. These issues remain under investigation.

CPJ and RSF have called for a full investigation into Roshchyna’s death. She was never publicly convicted, no formal Criminal Code charge was disclosed, and she died while being held by Russia without a transparent legal status.