Kyiv confirms death of Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna in Russian custody

Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna has died in Russian custody, Petro Yatsenko, a representative of the Ukrainian government’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, told Ukraine’s United News telemarathon on Thursday, adding that the circumstances of her death were unclear.

Roshchyna, who was 27 at the time of her death, worked as a freelance journalist for independent news outlets including Ukrainska Pravda, Hromadske, and Radio Free Europe. She was detained by Russian forces in August 2023 while reporting from Russia-occupied eastern Ukraine, the Russian Defence Ministry confirmed in a letter to her father in April.

Roshchyna’s father received a notice from the Russian Defence Ministry, dated 2 October, on Thursday, which said she had died on 19 September and that her body would be returned to Ukraine, Ukrainian news outlet Graty reported.

Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Yurchyshyn first reported Roshchyna’s death on Thursday, saying on Telegram that Roshchyna’s father had been notified by the Russian authorities. However, he subsequently deleted his post after saying that he would wait for the news to be confirmed by the Ukrainian government.

“The Russians took the talented journalist hostage in August 2023. And now they have killed her,” Yurchyshyn wrote, vowing that Ukraine would do “everything possible” to make sure that Roshchyna’s killers suffered “the punishment they deserve”.

Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukraine’s military intelligence, told Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne that Roshchyna was due to be included in the next prisoner exchange between Moscow and Kyiv, and that she was being transferred to Moscow’s Lefortovo prison ahead of the upcoming exchange when she died.

“She was supposed to return home in the near future, we did everything we could to make that happen,” Yusov told Suspilne.

Roshchyna, who covered Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine from the early days of the war, left Ukraine for Poland on 27 July 2023 and planned to travel to eastern Ukraine via Russia three days later.

She last made contact with her editors on 3 August 2023, telling them that she had spent several days attempting to cross the border. She was last known to be reporting from an occupied area of southeastern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.