On 10 October 2024, Russian and Ukrainian authorities reported on the death in Russian custody of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, who had gone missing in late July 2023, after her departure for territories of Ukraine occupied by Russia. No details on the circumstances of her death were publicly made available.
Roshchyna, a freelance journalist with Ukrainska Pravda, a major Ukrainian publication, and several other leading Ukrainian outlets, left Kyiv in late July 2023 with the intention to reach Russian-occupied territory in southeastern Ukraine. Soon after her departure, she went missing, with many of her colleagues expressing their fear that she was most likely being held by Russian forces.
In May 2024, nearly a year after her departure, Roshchyna’s family reported that Russian authorities had confirmed to them that the journalist was being held in Russian custody. However, the charges against her, as well as the place of her detention remained unknown.
In official statements, Russia claimed that the journalist’s death occurred on September 19. While Ukrainian media reports suggested Roshchyna died while being prepared for a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine, the circumstances of her death remained unclear. Ukrainian authorities immediately opened an investigation into the journalist’s death.
Following the announcement of her death, reports emerged suggesting that Roshchyna had spent the past four months in an individual prison cell in the Russian city of Taganrog, which is located immediately next to the Ukrainian border. Prior to this, it has been reported that she was held in pre-trial detention by Russian forces in Berdyansk, a city in southeastern Ukraine currently under Russian occupation.
While it is unclear what location the journalist managed to reach as part of the reporting trip she began in late July 2023, it was known that she planned to report from regions of Ukraine under Russian occupation.
UPDATE: On 24 April 2025, Ukrainian authorities reported that Russia had returned Roshchyna’s body to her family in Ukraine. According to an investigation released on 29 April by an international consortium of media outlets, Roshchyna’s body contained visible marks suggesting that she had been tortured while in Russian custody.