An award-winning Ukrainian journalist who wrote firsthand accounts of life in Russian-occupied Ukraine has died in detention in Russia.
Victoria Roshchyna, who was 27, worked freelance for Ukrainian media outlets Ukrainska Pravda and Hromadske Radio, as well as for US-funded Radio Liberty.
She went missing in August last year after she traveled to Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine on a reporting trip.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence acknowledged in a letter to her father in May that she was in Russian custody.
“Unfortunately, information about Victoria’s death has been confirmed,” Petro Yatsenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s prisoners of war coordination headquarters, told Ukrainian television.
He said investigations were continuing into how she died.
Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a statement that Russia informed Roshchyna’s family on Thursday that she had died on September 19.
“The Russian authorities have never provided any information about her detention, despite repeated requests from her family, the Ukrainian authorities, and RSF,” Jeanne Cavalier, head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said in a statement. “They must shed light on all the circumstances surrounding her detention and death.”
