Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna dies in Russian detention, Kyiv says
CTV
Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, who went missing in an occupied part of her country, died in Russian detention last month, Ukrainian authorities said earlier this week.
Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, who went missing in an occupied part of her country, died in Russian detention last month, Ukrainian authorities said earlier this week.
Roshchyna, who was 27, disappeared in August last year during a reporting trip to a Russian-occupied area in Ukraine. She was missing for months, with her loved ones having no idea what happened to her.
According to the Office of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, Moscow only informed Roshchyna’s family she was detained in Russia in April, months after she was captured.
“I have official documentation from the Russian side confirming the death of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, who was illegally deprived of her liberty by Russia,” Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, said in a statement.
CNN has asked Russian authorities for comment, but received no answer.
Roshchyna’s colleagues said she travelled to the Russian-held territory – a dangerous ordeal for any Ukrainian – to report on the lives of people living under occupation. They said they believed the young journalist was killed by Russian authorities.
“We have every reason to believe that her death was either the result of a deliberate murder or the result of the cruel treatment and violence to which she was subjected during her time in Russian captivity,” Ukrainian journalists and media professionals said in a statement published in several Ukrainian media outlets.
