Ukrainian Journalist Has Died in Russian Captivity, Ukraine Says

Viktoria Roshchina, a 27-year-old reporter, had been detained by the Russian authorities after reporting from occupied territories in Ukraine.

Viktoria Roshchina, a Ukrainian journalist who went missing in August 2023 while reporting from territories occupied by Moscow’s forces, has died in Russian custody, Ukrainian officials said.

Ms. Roshchina, 27, had reported at great risk from areas in southern Ukraine and had reportedly traveled to eastern Ukraine to document the Russian occupation there.

Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, said on Thursday that he had received official documentation from Russia confirming that Ms. Roshchina had died in captivity, adding that the exact circumstances surrounding her death remain unclear.

The Russian authorities have not commented on the reports.

The news of her death outraged the international journalism community, with several organizations calling on the Russian authorities to promptly investigate what happened.

“Responsibility for her death lies with the Russian authorities, who detained her for daring to report the truth about the Russia-Ukraine war,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement. “Both Ukrainian and Russian authorities must do everything in their power to investigate this tragedy.”

Ms. Roshchina worked as a freelance reporter for several independent Ukrainian publications, including Ukrainska Pravda and Hromadske.

She focused on reporting from Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine, including writing about the occupation of Enerhodar, a southern Ukrainian city that is home to a major nuclear power plant now under Russian control.

Ms. Roshchina was first arrested by Russian troops in March 2022 while reporting in southeastern Ukraine and was released after 10 days. She went missing again in August 2023 after traveling to occupied territories in eastern Ukraine.

Her whereabouts remained unknown until this spring, when the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed in a letter to her father that she was being held in Russia, according to a report by the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine.

The Media Initiative for Human Rights, a Ukrainian group investigating war crimes, said Ms. Roshchina had been held in a prison in Taganrog, in southern Russia.

Several Ukrainian media outlets reported that the Russian Defense Ministry had informed Ms. Roshchina’s father in a letter that she died on Sept. 19. The date of her death could not be independently verified.

In a comment to the Ukrainian news outlet Suspilne, Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence service, said that Ms. Roshchina had been scheduled to be transferred to a jail in Moscow and was then set to be returned to Ukraine as part of a prisoner exchange. That claim could not be independently verified.

In 2022, the International Women’s Media Foundation awarded Ms. Roshchina the “Courage in Journalism” award for her reporting from occupied territories.

“Victoria’s passing is not just the loss of a remarkable woman, but of an intrepid witness to history,” the International Women’s Media Foundation said in a statement. “Regardless of her cause of death, we can say with certainty that her life was taken because she dared tell the truth.”

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

• U.S. Aid: President Biden announced $425 million in aid to Ukraine as he prepared to travel to Germany to celebrate the unified front of Western allies. The security package includes munitions, armored vehicles and other weapons.
• Russia Claws Back Land: Moscow’s forces have been recapturing some villages and land taken in a Ukrainian incursion into Russia. The advances could undermine Kyiv’s hopes of pushing Russia to the negotiating table.
• A Deadly Month: September was the bloodiest month of the war for Russian forces in Ukraine, U.S. officials said, bringing the number of Russia’s dead and wounded to more than 600,000 troops since the war began.

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