IStories: Ukrainian journalist’s body repatriated from Russia without eyes or brain

The body of Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna was returned from Russian captivity with parts missing, investigative media outlet IStories has revealed in a joint international investigation published on Tuesday.

The investigation, carried out with journalists from six countries and publications including The Washington Post, The Guardian and Ukrainska Pravda, revealed that her body was handed back to Ukraine as that of an unidentified man in February as part of an exchange with Russia.

The Ukrainian authorities only disclosed that Roshchyna’s body had been repatriated on 24 April. A body bag labelled “unidentified male” was sent to a morgue in the western Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, where staff found the frozen body of a deeply emaciated woman and a tag identifying Roshchyna, according to IStories.

Roshchyna’s body displayed numerous signs of torture and mistreatment. Her eyeballs, brain and part of her larynx were removed before her body was returned to Ukraine, while her hyoid bone was broken. A Ukrainian law enforcement source said this could be an attempt to cover up torture, while Russia claimed that the removal of organs may be due to procedures in the treatment of dead bodies, IStories said.

The investigation also revealed that Roshchyna was held incommunicado during her captivity in Russia, a serious human rights violation according to international law. Of 35 abducted civilians the journalists came across in the course of their investigation, at least 19 were kept completely cut off from the outside world, with released cell mates proving to be the sole source of information for relatives.

According to the report, Roshchyna was allowed to call her father in August, and told him she was being prepared for an exchange in September. Some 49 Ukrainians returned from Russian captivity in that exchange, the 56th between Ukraine and Russia, but Roshchyna was not among them.

Roshchyna was detained in August 2023 while reporting undercover from Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine. After initially being held in the cities of Enerhodar and Melitopol, she was transferred to a pretrial detention centre run by Russia’s Federal Security Service in the southern Russian city of Taganrog. Roshchyna arrived in critical condition, according to the investigation, but told one cell mate that she had refused a deal offered by a serviceman transporting her because “she always stuck to her principles”.

The Russian Defence Ministry only confirmed last April that Roshchyna was in their custody when it wrote to her father, Volodymyr Roshchyn, saying simply that “Viktoria Vladimirovna Roshchyna, born on 6 October 1996, is being detained and is on the territory of the Russian Federation.” No official explanation for her detention was ever given.

On 10 October, Roshchyna’s father received another letter from Russia announcing her death, though it failed to clarify the circumstances of her passing. Ukrainian news outlet Graty subsequently reported that she had died on 19 September.

A documentary about Roshchyna, Vika’s Last Assignment, made by Slidstvo.Info, a team of independent Ukrainian journalists, with Reporters Without Borders and Ukrainian media outlets Suspilne and Graty, describes how Roshchyna was tortured while she was held in Russian captivity and lost up to 30 kilogrammes.