According to Ukrainian authorities, the body of a young Ukrainian lady who died in Russian captivity after being kept incommunicado for months was returned to Ukraine with evidence of abuse.
As part of a February corpse exchange between Ukraine and Russia, Kyiv claimed the remains of journalist Victoria Roshchyna, who vanished while on a reporting trip, were returned. “Numerous signs of torture and ill-treatment… including abrasions and hemorrhages on various parts of the body, a broken rib, and possibly traces of electric shock,” according to forensic analysis, said Yuriy Belousov, chief of the war crimes section at the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office.
According to Belousov, authorities have concluded that Roshchyna’s injuries occurred while she was still alive. Numerous media outlets have already exposed the pervasiveness of Russia’s use of electric shocks as a form of torture against Ukrainians who are jailed.
Although the body was believed to have come from Russia with the designation “an unidentified male,” Belousov revealed that several DNA examinations verified the body belonged to Roshchyna. He stated that it was hard to ascertain Roshchyna’s cause of death due to the body’s condition but that Ukraine was collaborating with foreign forensic specialists to obtain further information.
Roshchyna’s body was repatriated from Russia with missing organs, according to her coworkers at Ukrainska Pravda. They said that the absence of the brain, eyes, and a portion of the trachea, or windpipe, may have been an attempt by Russia to conceal the cause of death, citing members of the investigative team who handled her remains.
Confined in a harsh detention facility
In August 2023, Roshchyna disappeared. According to her colleagues, the reporter traveled to an area of Ukraine that is under Russian control, which is a perilous experience for any Ukrainian, in order to cover the lives of those who are occupied.
As the previous editor of the Ukrainian media site Hromadske, Roshchyna collaborated with journalist Evgeniya Motorevskaya, who noted the young reporter was committed to doing her job as well as she could.
Nothing was more significant to her than journalism. The most significant national events were traditionally held at Vika. She referred to Roshchyna by her nickname in a message posted on Hromadske’s website upon the first announcement of her death. “And she would have continued to do this for many years, but the Russians killed her,” she added.
Roshchyna’s father initially became concerned when she stopped answering messages during the assignment. Still, her family was unaware of her location until nine months later when Moscow eventually acknowledged that it was detaining her.
Roshchyna was taken by Russian forces in occupied Ukraine, along with hundreds of other Ukrainian people, and sent to Russia, where she was imprisoned without being charged or given a trial. Roshchyna, a healthy 27-year-old, passed away in September 2024, but her family didn’t learn about it until around a month later when they got word from Russia.
In October, Roshchyna passed away during the transit from a detention center in the southern Russian city of Taganrog to Moscow, according to Petro Yatsenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian Coordination Center for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
According to him, the move was made in anticipation of her release as a result of a prisoner swap. The brutal treatment of inmates at the Taganrog detention center is well-known. Inmates detained there have previously been interviewed by media outlets, and they have told of being refused access to basic medical treatment, receiving little food, and experiencing physical and psychological abuse.
Following the announcement of her death, Ukrainska Pravda reporters have joined forces with reporters from over a dozen foreign media outlets to attempt to piece together what transpired during the final months of her life. They spoke with human rights advocates, jail guards, and dozens of inmates. They were able to follow her whereabouts and recount the cruelty of her captivity.
