"She didn't want to eat while others were being tortured": new testimony about the death of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna
New witness testimony gathered by Reporters Without Borders has emerged concerning the death of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna in a Russian prison.
Source: Reporters Without Borders (RSF), citing witness testimony
Details: The witnesses interviewed by RSF described Roshchyna as being in an extremely weakened state.
One witness who was present during Roshchyna's transfer from the southern Russian city of Taganrog to the town of Kizel in Russia's Perm Krai recalled that the journey lasted four days.
It began by train and continued in vans over a distance of nearly 2,000 km.
Quote: "Those who saw her during this journey describe a skeletal woman who was unsteady on her feet and had a 'yellowish' complexion, reminiscent of the 'Holodomor victims'." [The Holodomor was a man-made famine engineered by the Soviet authorities under Stalin in 1932-1933 that claimed the lives of millions of Ukrainians – ed.]
More details: Some prisoners shared some of their food with her. They knew her by reputation as a journalist who had been arrested for "telling the truth" and was refusing to eat.
"She said she wouldn't eat as long as our boys were being tortured," said one of the witnesses, who remains anonymous for safety reasons.
By the time Roshchyna arrived in Kizel, she was exhausted. She struggled to stay on her feet and often lost consciousness. Yet the Russian prison system continued to mistreat her.
On 18 September 2024, the day before she died, "she wasn't well", according to another witness. She reportedly asked a guard for tea and even offered to pay later.
The response was a mocking shout: "You must have come to the wrong place. You're not in a position to ask for anything."
The witness also said a prison medic came to Roshchyna's cell and gave her an injection of an unknown substance.
Quote from the witness: "They gave her something, probably to bring her back to her senses."
Viktoriia died the following day.
Background:
- Viktoriia Roshchyna was detained by Russian troops in March 2022 and held for 10 days in temporarily occupied Berdiansk.
- In 2022, Roshchyna wrote a series of reports for Ukrainska Pravda from temporarily occupied territories, including pieces on life in occupied Crimea during the war and on how the pseudo-referendum had been conducted in Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast, and a photo feature from devastated Mariupol.
- In order to get to the occupied territories, Roshchyna left Ukraine for Poland on 25 July. She planned to travel through Russia to the occupied east of Ukraine in three days.
- 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 2 August 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posthumously awarded the Order of Freedom to Viktoriia Roshchyna.
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