Ukrainian media figure Victoria Roshchyna perishes in Russian custody, according to Kyiv's statement.
Twenty-seven-year-old journalist, Roshchyna, went missing last August during a reporting stint in a Russian-controlled region of Ukraine. Her loved ones were left in the dark for months, with no clue about her whereabouts.
As per the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office, Russia reported Roshchyna's detention to her family in April, several months after her capture.
Ukraine's human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, declared in a statement that he possessed formal confirmation from Russian sources indicating the demise of Ukrainian journalist, Victoria Roshchyna, who was unlawfully incarcerated by Russia.
CNN reached out to Russian authorities for comment, but received no response.
Roshchyna's colleagues claimed that she ventured into the Russian-occupied territory – a hazardous journey for any Ukrainian – to report on the lives of individuals living under occupation. They suspected that the young journalist was murdered by Russian authorities.
"We have compelling reasons to believe that her death was either the consequence of a deliberate assassination or the outcome of the harsh treatment and violence she endured during her time in Russian captivity," Ukrainian journalists and media professionals stated in a publication distributed across numerous Ukrainian media outlets.
The statement further mentioned that Roshchyna was in good health before her year-long imprisonment.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office is investigating her death as a war crime coupled with premeditated murder.
Journalist Evgeniya Motorevskaya, who collaborated with Roshchyna as the former editor of Hromadske, a Ukrainian media outlet, said that the young reporter was committed to performing her job to the best of her ability.
"For her, there was nothing more significant than journalism. Vika was always present at the most crucial events for the country. She would have continued to do this for many years, but the Russians took her life," she said in a statement published on Hromadske's website, referring to Roshchyna by her diminutive.
Petro Yatsenko, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Coordination Center for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, stated in a statement that approximately 25 Ukrainian journalists are being held captive in Russia, and several others are considered missing.
The Ukrainian government alleges that thousands of Ukrainians have been subjected to arbitrary detention in Russia. Lubinets, Kyiv's human rights commissioner, declared in July that 14,000 Ukrainian civilians were in Russian custody, some of whom have been held since 2014 when the conflict began in eastern Ukraine and Russia annexed Crimea.
Yatsenko stated, according to Russian authorities, Roshchyna perished while being transferred from a detention facility in the southern Russian city of Taganrog to Moscow. He claimed that the transfer was part of a prisoner exchange preparation.
"Unfortunately, we ran out of time," he said in the statement.
Tetyana Katrychenko from the Media Initiative for Human Rights, a Ukrainian rights group, stated in a statement published on her social media that the detention facility in Taganrog was notorious for its cruel treatment of detainees.
CNN has previously reported on the widespread torture of Ukrainian prisoners by Russian authorities.
"Taganrog ... is renowned as one of the most brutal places of detention for Ukrainians in the Russian Federation. It is called hell on earth," Katrychenko said, adding that Roshchyna was held in Taganrog from at least May to September 2024. "She was held in solitary confinement," she added.
Roshchyna was honored with the 2022 Courage in Journalism Award by the International Women's Media Foundation. Her work was published in various media outlets including Ukrayinska Pravda, Hromadske and Radio Free Europe.
Despite Roshchyna's significant contributions to journalism in Europe, her reporting in Russian-controlled regions led to her unlawful imprisonment in Russia, which was later confirmed by Ukrainian authorities. This incident sparked concern and outrage in the global journalism community, highlighting the struggles faced by journalists working in conflict zones around the world.
