Young Ukrainian Journalist Dies In Russian Captivity

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – A young Ukrainian journalist, who was captured and detained by Russia while covering Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine in 2023, has died, an advocacy group confirmed Thursday.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) told Worthy News that 27-year-old Viktoria Roshchina died September 19, “just as she was transferred for a prisoner exchange.”

The CPJ said it had demanded that Russian authorities “immediately disclose” the circumstances surrounding her death.

“CPJ is shocked by the news of Viktoria Roshchina’s death during her unlawful imprisonment by Russia. We extend our deep condolences to her family and loved ones,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator.

“Responsibility for her death lies with the Russian authorities, who detained her for daring to report the truth on the Russia-Ukraine war. Ukrainian and Russian authorities must do everything in their power to investigate Roshchina’s death.”

The CPJ said it learned about Roshschina’s death from Petro Yatsenko, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian government’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, and Yaroslav Yurchyshyn.

The journalist reportedly died while being transferred from the southwestern Russian port city of Taganrog to Moscow, the capital, for a prisoner exchange. Russian authorities officially notified Roshchina’s father about her death, Yurchyshyn said.

REPORTING WAR

Roshchina, who was a freelance reporter who covered the war in Ukraine for several Ukrainian media outlets, went missing on August 3, 2023, when reporting on eastern Ukraine.

Her detention was only confirmed by Russia in April 2024.

She is the latest in a long list of journalists being killed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

At least 15 journalists and one media worker have been killed covering the war since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, according to CPJ research.

Additionally, “Multiple Ukrainian journalists have been detained in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine,” the group told Worthy News.

Russia was the world’s fourth-worst jailer of journalists in CPJ’s 2023 prison census, with at least 22 journalists, including Roshchina, behind bars as of December 1.

CPJ’s emails to the Russian Ministry of Defense and Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War about Roshchina did not receive an immediate response.

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