In February 2025, during a body exchange between Ukraine and Russia, among the 757 remains returned, one was labeled “unknown male.” Ukrainian investigators later identified the body as journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who had gone missing in the summer of 2023 while working near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, reports the Baltimore Chronicle, citing The Guardian.
Roshchyna was detained by Russian forces in occupied Melitopol without charges and was denied legal representation. For a year, she was held in Taganrog Detention Center No. 2, a facility notorious for its mistreatment of detainees. The only confirmed contact with the outside world was a four-minute phone call to her parents, a year after her arrest.
Upon the body’s return to Ukraine, forensic experts found numerous signs of torture: electric burns on her feet, lacerations on her thighs and head, a broken rib, and injuries consistent with strangulation. Additionally, her brain, eyes, and larynx were missing, making it difficult to establish the exact cause of death.
Investigators discovered that Roshchyna had been included in a planned prisoner exchange in September 2024. However, just before the exchange, she was transferred to the Lefortovo prison in Moscow, after which all contact ceased. The Russian side did not officially confirm her death, and her name was not listed in any prison databases.
Viktoriia Roshchyna was well known for her reporting from occupied regions of Ukraine. She worked with Ukrainska Pravda and other independent media outlets. In 2022, she was awarded the International Women’s Media Foundation’s “Courage in Journalism” Award. Her death is now under investigation as a potential war crime.
Earlier we wrote that Russian Army losses in war against Ukraine have already exceeded 930 thousand soldiers.