Halya Coynash
The 27-year-old journalist, who lived for her work, had travelled to occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast in order to find out about Russia’s torture prisons on occupied territory
Victoria Roshchyna Photo from her Facebook page
Over five months have passed since Victoria Roshchyna died in Russian captivity with Russia still refusing to hand over her body or explain how the 27-year-old journalist died. Slidstvo.info investigative journalists, together with Suspilne and Graty, and the international NGO Reporters without Borders, have carried out their own investigation, and presented important information about why Vika set off for occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast, despite the obvious danger, where she was seized, and how she came to die in Russian captivity. Most of the new information has come from the people she was in contact with before her abduction, and a cellmate, later freed, who has described the torture to which Vika was subjected and her state of emaciation, weighing less than 30 kilograms only months before her death.
Victoria Roshchyna had already been abducted by the Russian invaders once, from occupied Berdiansk in March 2022, just after she wrote a report for Hromadske on the situation in occupied Enerhodar. On that occasion, she was held for ten days and released on 22 March 2022.
From then on, she worked freelance, regularly offering material to Ukrainska Pravda and other media outlets. She had been named one of the laureates of the International Women’s Media Foundation ‘Courage in Journalism Awards’ for 2022, and it now transpires that it was to this Foundation that she turned in 2023, seeking support for a very dangerous journalist investigation in occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast. She wanted to identify and find out more about the Russian invaders’ torture prisons which have been established and widely used on all Ukrainian territory while under Russian occupation.
In order to get to occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast, the journalist had to travel to Poland, then Latvia, where she crossed into Russia, and from there, onto occupied Ukrainian territory. From interviews with two of the journalist’s contacts during that period, it is now believed that she was taken prisoner in occupied Enerhodar after being detected by a drone. Whatever the circumstances, however, it should be stressed that this was no arrest of a person facing criminal charges, but an abduction. There is, in fact, nothing to suggest that criminal charges were ever laid, or that Roshchyna had any formal procedural status. Media reports on 8 March that Russian ombudsperson Tatyana Moskalkova had confirmed the lack of any procedural status are probably misleading, since Moskalkova does not appear to have responded at all. Such lack of reaction is, in itself, incriminating given the evident need to investigate the death of a young woman held for 10 months in Russian captivity without any charge.
Victoria Roshchyna was held in several torture prisons, in Enerhodar and Melitopol for several months then, in December 2023, she was taken to SIZO-2 remand prison in Taganrog (Russia) which is particularly notorious for its shocking treatment of Ukrainian political prisoners. The journalists were given access to part of the testimony given, on condition of anonymity, by a former hostage who shared a cell for some time at SIZO-2 with Roshchyna. The woman recalled that Roshchyna had various scarі on her body – on her arms and legs, including one caused by a knife, after her treatment in the Russian torture prisons. The cellmate also confirmed that Roshchyna had been subjected to torture through electric currents with wires attached to the most sensitive parts of the body. Some of the wounds were very recent, and Roshchyna clearly needed treatment for them. Her requests for medication here and on other occasions were ignored.
It seems clear from her account that measures were taken to hide Roshchyna. Before a visit to the SIZO by people from the ombudsperson’s office, Roshchyna was taken away and kept locked in an office that was not part of the official visit. The latter was a cynical farce with the monitors videoed as they asked the hostages if they would like to send their families any letters. The woman giving testimony said immediately that she would like to write such a letter, however the ombudsperson’s representatives left, and no paper or pens were provided.
Victoria’s extreme weight loss appears to have been as a result of the torture and the psychological pressure she endured. Aside from visiting her once, the SIZO management did nothing until June when Victoria was placed in hospital, seemingly for two or three weeks. At that stage, the cellmate says, her weight had fallen dramatically. She weighed around 30 kilograms and couldn’t stand without the cellmate’s help. It is not clear what they did in the hospital as when they brought her back to the SIZO, they placed her in a cell by herself. The former cellmate says that they simply heard her returning, but adds that, whereas she had been taken to the hospital on a stretcher, it sounded as though she was able to move about. The former cellmate recalls hearing the guards telling Victoria to come out where they could see her and eat. Reporters without borders has spoken of several corroborating reports, suggesting that after the hospital, she did appear a bit better.
Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages are tortured and ill-treated in all Russian and Russian-controlled prisons and SIZO, but Taganrog is especially notorious for its appalling treatment. Since the Russian defence ministry [had finally responded](https://khpg.org/en/1608813714) to the family’s formal demands for information and confirmed, in late April 2024 that Roshchyna was “detained and currently on the territory of the Russian Federation”, it is unlikely that they wanted her to die. A number of political prisoners, prisoners of war and hostages have, however, died in Russian prisons, being either directly tortured to death or effectively, through the failure to provide medical care or release a person whose health, even by Russian standards, made detention impossible. It seems clear that the staff believe in their impunity from punishment.
Victoria Roshchyna was held in solitary confinement from then on. She was last seen alive on 8 September 2024. The terse note that her father received in early October 2024 stated that the journalist had died on 19 September 2024. She was supposed to have been included in a prisoner exchange.
Russia bears full responsibility for Victoria’s death, as the young woman should never have been in captivity. The fact that they are hiding her body almost certainly means that there are other crimes that they are trying to conceal.