Ukrainian journalist, 27, who chronicled Russian occupation dies in prison

Viktoriia Roshchyna disappeared successful August 2023 successful a portion of Ukraine present occupied by Russian forces.

It took 9 months for Russian authorities to confirmed the writer had been detained. They gave nary reason.

This week, her begetter got a terse missive from the defence ministry successful Moscow informing him that Victoria was dead, aged 27.

The papers said the journalist’s assemblage would beryllium returned successful 1 of the swaps organised by Russia and Ukraine for soldiers killed connected the battlefield. The decease day was fixed arsenic 19 September.

Again, determination was nary explanation.

This weekend, friends gathered to retrieve Viktoriia connected the Maidan successful cardinal Kyiv. They shuffled into presumption connected the steps holding her photograph, young look smiling retired astatine the tiny crowd.

“She had immense courage,” 1 pistillate began the tributes.

“We volition miss her enormously,” said another, turning distant arsenic her eyes filled with tears.

Viktoriia’s stories were snapshots of beingness that Ukrainians were not getting from anyplace else.

Reporting from occupied areas of Ukraine was highly dangerous, but her colleagues retrieve however she was hopeless to spell there, adjacent aft she was detained and held successful custody the archetypal time, for 10 days.

“Her parents utilized to telephone and archer america to halt deploying her, but we ne'er did deploy her!” 1 of her erstwhile bosses recalled.

“All her editors tried to halt her. But it was impossible.”

The young newsman yet went freelance successful bid to deploy herself and erstwhile she got backmost newspapers would bargain her reports.

Most strikingly, she ne'er utilized a pseudonym adjacent though she wrote openly of "occupied" territory and referred to those who collaborated with the Russians arsenic "traitors".

“She wanted to supply accusation astir however those cities unrecorded nether siege by the Russian army,” Sevgil Musaieva, editor-in-chief astatine Ukrayinska Pravda, told the BBC.

“She was perfectly amazing.”

Viktoriia's begetter has antecedently described however she acceptable retired via Poland and Russia past July, heading for occupied Ukraine.

It was a week earlier she called to accidental she’d been interrogated astatine the borderline for respective days.

All we cognize for definite aft that, is that by May she was successful Detention Centre No. 2 successful Taganrog, confederate Russia – a installation truthful notorious for the brutal attraction of galore Ukrainians that immoderate dub it the "Russian Guantanamo".

According to the Media Initiative for Human Rights, different Ukrainian national who was released from Taganrog past period has told Viktoriia’s household she saw the writer connected 8 oregon 9 September.

Then, determination was origin for hope.

“I was 100% definite she’d beryllium backmost connected 13 September this year. My sources gave maine 100% guarantees,” Musaieva, from Ukrayinska Pravda, says.

She had been told Viktoriia would beryllium included successful 1 of the periodic prisoner-of-war swaps that Ukraine and Russia transportation out, planned for the mediate of past month.

“So what happened with her successful prison? Why didn’t she travel home?”

Viktoriia was moved, with different Ukrainian woman, but neither were included successful the captive exchange.

“That means she was taken determination else," says Media Initiative manager Tetyana Katrychenko. "They accidental to Lefortovo. Why there? We don’t know."

She says it’s not mean signifier up of a swap.

Lefortovo situation successful Moscow is tally by the FSB information work and utilized for those accused of espionage and superior crimes against the state.

“Maybe they took her determination to commencement immoderate benignant of tribunal proceeding oregon investigation. That’s happened to different civilians taken from Kherson and Melitopol,” Tetyana says.

The BBC understands that Viktoriia’s begetter had spoken to her successful situation connected 30 August.

At immoderate point, she had called a hunger strike, but that time her begetter urged her to commencement eating again and she agreed.

“That needs investigating. It besides means we’d beryllium blaming her, partially, and not the Russian Federation, arsenic we should,” Tetyana cautions.

Ukraine’s quality work has confirmed Viktoriia’s decease and the General Prosecutor’s bureau has changed its transgression lawsuit from amerciable detention to murder.

In Russia, Viktoriia was ne'er charged with immoderate transgression and the circumstances of her detention are not known.

“A civilian writer … captured by Russia. Then Russia sends a missive that she died?” Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Yurchyshyn told the BBC successful Kyiv.

“It's killing. Just the sidesplitting of hostages. I don't cognize different word.”

Russia hasn't commented.

Since the commencement of Russia’s full-scale invasion, immense numbers of civilians person been taken from areas of Ukraine that Moscow has overrun and present controls.

Like Viktoriia’s family, hopeless relatives are near with small oregon nary accusation connected their whereabouts oregon wellbeing, and nary thought whether they’ll ever get home.

So far, the Media Initiative has collated a database of 1,886 names.

"There’s each sorts of people, including ex-soldiers and constabulary officers and section officials similar mayors,” Tetyana says.

“And of people determination whitethorn beryllium galore much we don’t cognize about.”

Neither lawyers nor the Red Cross get entree and adjacent if someone’s determination tin beryllium confirmed, getting them backmost location is astir impossible: civilians are seldom swapped.

Viktoriia’s friends and colleagues accidental they won’t remainder until they’ve investigated what happened.

“Her beingness was her work,” Angelina Karyakina, a erstwhile exertion astatine Hromadske says. “It's a uncommon benignant of radical who are truthful determined.”

“I'm beauteous definite the mode she would privation america to retrieve her is not to basal present and cry, but to retrieve her dignity,” she says.

“And I deliberation what’s important for america journalists, is to find retired what she was moving connected – and to decorativeness her story.”