Journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna who was killed in Russian captivity honoured with Oxi Courage Award for bravery
Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who was killed in Russian captivity, has been posthumously honoured with the American Oxi Courage Award for bravery.
Source: Oksana Markarova, former Ukrainian ambassador to the US, following a visit to the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington by representatives of The Washington Oxi Day Foundation
Quote from Markarova: "I was glad to welcome good friends of Ukraine to the Embassy – Andy Manatos, president and founder of The Washington Oxi Day Foundation, and its executive director Mike Manatos.
‘Oxi’ means ‘no’ in Greek. That was the single word with which the people and government of Greece in 1940 responded to Nazi Germany’s demand to surrender and not resist occupation. In 2011, the Oxi Day Foundation was created in memory of the Greek people’s heroism and to honour modern-day acts of courage."
Details: Each year, the foundation presents the Oxi Courage Award to individuals who have shown exceptional bravery, resolve and courage. Past laureates include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (2022), the NGO Save Ukraine which rescues abducted Ukrainian children from Russia (2023), and singer Ruslana Lyzhychko, a leading figure of the Revolution of Dignity (2014).
In 2025, the award will be posthumously presented to Viktoriia Roshchyna, a journalist, war correspondent, human rights defender and freelance contributor to Ukrainska Pravda, who reported on life under occupation and Russian crimes against civilians.
Roshchyna was captured by Russian forces in August 2023 while investigating the abduction and torture of civilians in the temporarily occupied city of Enerhodar. In October 2024, it became known that she had been killed at the age of 27. She was being held in a pre-trial detention centre in Taganrog and was due to be exchanged.
"Despite the mortal danger, Viktoriia reported on war crimes and violations of humanitarian law in the occupied territories. We are grateful to the Oxi Day Foundation for recognising her heroism and for the opportunity to remind participants at the upcoming ceremony of the high price of our freedom," Markarova commented.
In March 2025, Roshchyna was also named a laureate of the Czech human rights prize Homo Homini.
In August, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy honoured her (posthumously) with the Order of Freedom for civic courage, patriotism, selfless defence of Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence and the protection of human rights and constitutional freedoms.
Background:
- Viktoriia Roshchyna disappeared on 3 August 2023 while reporting from Russian-occupied territory.
- It was not until May 2024 that Russia admitted to having detained Roshchyna. The Russian Ministry of Defence sent a letter confirming this to her father, Volodymyr Roshchyn.
- On 10 October 2024, Petro Yatsenko, the head of the press service of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, said during the 24/7 national joint newscast that Viktoriia Roshchyna had died in Russian custody. Defence Intelligence of Ukraine clarified that Roshchyna was to be brought back to Ukraine within a prisoner swap.
- The Office of the Prosecutor General announced that a criminal case opened in connection with Roshchyna’s disappearance has been reclassified as a war crime combined with premeditated murder.
- Russia delayed the return of Roshchyna’s body, which was only repatriated in February 2025.
- According to the Office of the Prosecutor General, Roshchyna’s body showed multiple signs of torture and cruel treatment, including abrasions, haemorrhages, a broken rib and evidence of electric shocks.
- An investigative team confirmed that the body had been brought to Ukraine after an autopsy conducted in Russia. Sources in Ukrainian security agencies told journalists that the Russians handed over the body without several internal organs – the brain, eyeballs and part of the trachea.
- An international forensic pathologist suggested that this could have been an attempt to conceal the true cause of death, presumably suffocation. On 8 August, a funeral for Viktoriia was held in Kyiv.
- Following her death, Forbidden Stories and 12 other international media outlets, including Ukrainska Pravda, launched the Viktoriia Project to complete Roshchyna’s unfinished investigation.
- A team of 45 journalists spent over six months analysing documents, testimonies, and court materials, and conducted more than 50 interviews with people who survived Russian captivity and have inside knowledge of the system.
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