“She weighed up to 30 kilograms”: Journalist Roshchyna tortured in Russian captivity – investigation

Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, who was captured by the Russians in the summer of 2023, was brutally tortured: her body showed knife wounds, she weighed up to 30 kilograms, and employees of the Russian colony hid her from inspections, according to an investigative film by “Slidstvo.Info” titled “Vika’s Last Assignment.”

Viktoria Roshchyna. Photo: “Slidstvo.Info”

The Russians captured Ukrainian journalist Roshchyna in August 2023. At that time, she had gone to report from territories occupied by Russia. It later became known that Viktoria Roshchyna was being held in pre-trial detention center No. 2 in Taganrog, Rostov region, Russia. Then, in October 2024, the Russian Ministry of Defense sent her father, Volodymyr Roshchyn, a letter stating that she had died in captivity.

Journalists from Slidstvo.Info, Suspilne, Graty, and Reporters Without Borders discovered that the Russians initially seized Viktoria Roshchyna and held her in torture chambers in the occupied territory of the Zaporizhzhia region and later transferred her to Taganrog.

According to Iryna Didenko, the senior group of prosecutors from the Office of the Prosecutor General in Roshchyna’s case, the Ukrainian journalist was held in prisons without any charges being brought against her.

Slidstvo.Info obtained testimony from the journalist’s cellmate (the name is not disclosed for security reasons – Ed.) about what happened to her in the torture chambers and Taganrog pre-trial detention center No. 2.

The woman said that, according to Roshchyna, the journalist was initially held in Enerhodar (investigators confirmed this information from another source – Ed.), then in Melitopol. These are unsanctioned places of detention for civilians set up by the Russians in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories.

A witness from the Taganrog pre-trial detention centre said that Viktoria Roshchyna was tortured. The journalist’s body had knife wounds, with which she arrived after being held in occupation.

“I saw several scars on her body – definitely on her arm and leg. She had a knife wound, well, a fresh scar. Between the wrist and elbow in the soft tissues. And the scar was about three centimetres long,” said Vika’s cellmate from the Taganrog pre-trial detention centre.

In addition to knife cuts, the journalist was also tortured with electric shocks.

“I know that she was (tortured – Ed.) with electric shocks more than once. And she didn’t say how many times, but she said that she was all black and blue,” recalls the journalist’s captured cellmate, clarifying that the electric shocks could have been applied to Roshchyna’s ears.

Over time, the journalist began to lose weight rapidly. The Roshchyna refused to eat and constantly asked the prison guards for help.

When the pre-trial detention centre employees noticed the journalist was losing weight, the colony head came to her cell and talked with her. She constantly insisted that she be released, exchanged, or deported.

“She constantly asked for help. At first, she said that she had problems with her stomach, she didn’t have her period all the time, and she had a fever. Then, the woman noticed that she was losing a lot of weight. Vika weighed up to 30 kilograms. I helped her get up because she was in such a state that she couldn’t even lift her head off the pillow. At first, I would lift her head, Vika would grab the handle of the bed, and only then she could get up,” said the journalist’s cellmate.

According to the witness, during their detention, there was an inspection by the Russian ombudsman. The journalist was hidden from the inspection and moved to another floor in a locked room.

Roshchyna was last seen on September 8, 2024, when she was taken out of the cell in an unknown direction.

She was on the exchange lists and was supposed to be transferred from Taganrog to the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center in Moscow. Her death has now been confirmed, but the exact circumstances are unknown.

Ukrainian journalists and media professionals have called on the international community to take decisive and immediate action in connection with the murder of Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna in Russian captivity.

Viktoria Roshchyna worked for Hromadske and later published in “Ukrainska Pravda” and “Radio Liberty.” She collaborated with Ukrainian Radio, “UA: Pershyi,” and “Censor.net.” In 2022, she received the International Women’s Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award.

The first detention of the journalist became known on March 16, 2022. Representatives of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) detained her. At that time, she was in occupied Berdiansk. On March 22, Russian troops released Roshchyna from captivity, forcing her to record a video denying claims against the Russian special services.

On August 3, 2023, relatives and friends again lost contact with the journalist. She disappeared during a trip to the temporarily occupied territories. Before that, she had been in contact with her parents while in Poland. She planned to go to the temporarily occupied territory through Latvia and Russia.

In August, the journalist wrote to her sister that she had undergone numerous checks for several days while crossing the Russian border and did not feel safe.  Viktoria Roshchyna did not tell her relatives where exactly she was at that moment and did not get in touch again.