Slidstvo.Info: The deceased journalist Viktoria Roshchyna was tortured in Russian captivity

Ukrainian journalist Viktoriya Roshchina, who was captured by Russian forces in the summer of 2023, was brutally tortured. Her body bore stab wounds, she weighed up to 30 kilograms, and the Russian prison staff hid her from inspections.

This is stated in the investigation by Slidstvo.Info. The organizations "Reporters Without Borders", Suspilne and Graty also participated in it.

Roshchyna was captured by the Russians in August 2023. She had gone to report from the territories occupied by Russia. It later became known that the journalist was being held in pre-trial detention center No. 2 in Taganrog, in the Rostov region of Russia. And in October 2024, the Russian Defense Ministry sent a letter to her father Volodymyr Roshchyn, stating that Victoria had died in captivity.

Journalists found out that the Russians first captured Roshchyna and held her in torture chambers in the occupied territory of the Zaporizhzhia region, and later transported her to Taganrog. According to the senior group of prosecutors of the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office in the case of journalist Iryna Didenko, Roshchyna was held in Russian prisons without any charges being brought against her.

Her cellmate said that the journalist was first held in occupied Energodar (investigators confirmed this information from another source), then — in Melitopol. There, Victoria was tortured — the journalistʼs body had knife wounds, which she had when she arrived at the pre-trial detention center after being held in the occupation.

"I saw several scars on her body — definitely on her arm and leg. She had a knife wound, like a fresh scar. Between her hand and elbow in the soft tissues. And the scar was about three centimeters," says her cellmate from the Taganrog pre-trial detention center.

In addition to the knife cuts, the Russians also tortured the journalist with electric shocks. According to her cellmate, Roshchyna said that this happened more than once, but she did not specify how many times — she said that she was "all blue". The electric shocks could be connected to the womanʼs ears.

Over time, the journalist began to lose weight rapidly. Victoria refused to eat and constantly turned to the prison guards for help. After that, the warden of the colony would come to her cell and talk to her. The journalist insisted all the time that she be released, exchanged, or deported.

"She constantly asked for help. At first she said she had stomach problems, she didnʼt have her period all the time, and she had a fever. Then the women noticed that she was losing a lot of weight. Vika weighed up to 30 kilograms. I helped her get up, because she was in such a state that she couldnʼt even lift her head off the pillow. First I lifted her head, Vika grabbed the bed handle, and only then could she get up," says the journalistʼs cellmate.

According to witnesses, the Russian Ombudsman arrived at the pre-trial detention center where they were being held. At that time, Victoria was hidden and transferred to another floor in a locked room. The woman was last seen on September 8, 2024, when she was taken out of her cell in an unknown direction.

The capture and death of Victoria Roshchyna

Viktoria Roshchyna was first captured by the Russians in March 2022. She was traveling from Zaporizhzhia to Mariupol, but ended up in occupied Berdyansk, where she was held for 10 days. There, the journalist was forced to record a video saying that she did not blame Russia.

A year later, on August 3, 2023, Roshchyna disappeared in the temporarily occupied territories from where she was supposed to be reporting. After August 3, Victoria did not get in touch. In May 2024, Russia confirmed that it was again holding her captive.

On October 10, it became known that Roshchyna died during a transfer from Taganrog to Moscow. The cause of her death and when it happened were not reported.

The GUR representative Andriy Yusov told Babel that Ukraine already had agreements on Roshchinaʼs return home and she was supposed to return to Ukraine in the near future.

On October 11, the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office further qualified the criminal proceedings opened into her disappearance, adding Part 2 of Article 438 of the countryʼs Criminal Code — violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder.

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