Russia is hiding the body of Ukrainian journalist who died after months in notorious Russian prison

Russia returned the homes of 563 Ukrainian defenders on 8 November, with this the second time it failed to hand over the body of Victoria Roshchyna, the 27-year-old Ukrainian journalist who was in perfectly good health before being illegally abducted from occupied Ukraine and held prisoner in Russia.  Moscow has also provided no explanation as to the cause of her death, with concern mounting that the delay in returning her body is because she was effectively killed in a remand prison notorious for torturing prisoners, or as a result of the torture she had endured.

It was learned a month ago, on 10 October, that the young journalist was dead, with her father informed only that she had died on 19 September.  The letter did, reportedly, state that her body would be returned “to the Ukrainian side as part of an exchange of bodies of detained persons”. 

Russia had only admitted to holding her prisoner on 22 April 2024, nine months after she was abducted from occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast at the beginning of August 2023.  This was the second time that Roshchyna, a courageous young journalist, had been abducted by the Russian invaders.  She was first seized in March 2022 from occupied Berdiansk, having just provided a report for Hromadske on the situation in Enerhodar, the city linked to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, both of which had come under Russian occupation at the beginning of March. She was held then for ten days and released on 22 March 2022.

The young journalist, who also regularly published on Ukrainska Pravda and Radio Svoboda (RFE/RL) had been determined to find out and report on the situation in occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast, and set off on 25 July 2023, via Poland, then Russia.  All contact was lost on 3 August, after she had reached occupied territory, with nothing known of her whereabouts until the letter received in April 2024 which confirmed only that she was held prisoner.  After the news of her death, however, Ukrainian officials confirmed that negotiations had been underway to include her in an imminent exchange of prisoners.   the Russians have claimed that she died during the so-called ‘etap’ – the always gruelling journey between different Russian prisons or SIZO [remand prisons], this, seemingly, the journey from the Taganrog SIZO in Rostov oblast to Lefortovo Prison in Moscow.  In either case, Russia bore direct responsibility for the young woman’s life and safety in Russian captivity. 

Tetiana Katrychenko from the Media Initiative for Human Rights reported that Roshchyna was known to have been imprisoned first in the occupation Berdiansk prison colony No. 7 and then in SIZO No. 2 in Taganrog. 

Russia is largely blocking access to Ukrainian prisoners of war, especially those held on occupied territory, and often refuses to even confirm holding civilian hostages, like Roshchyna.  There have, however, been enough accounts from POWs or civilians freed in exchanges of prisoners for Ukrainian and international investigators to conclude that horrific forms of torture are widespread and a systemic part of Russia’s treatments of Ukrainians in its custody.  As reported, the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine recently concluded that Russia’s torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages does not only constitute war crimes, but is also part of a coordinated state policy, and as such, is a crime against humanity.

While the conditions in all Russian penal institutions are appalling, and torture and ill-treatment rampant everywhere, the SIZO where Roshchyna was held in Taganrog seems to be especially notorious  Freed Ukrainian prisoners of war speak of horrific torture, such as electric currents (attached to sensitive parts of the body, including genitals) and beatings, with these used to extract so-called ‘confessions’.  Ukrainians also receive virtually no food, with harrowing photos demonstrated of former prisoners who are totally emaciated and clearly very weak.

As reported, there are grounds for enormous concern about the safety of 33-year-old Ukrainian hostage Hryhory Sinchenko.  He was first seized and tortured in the Russian proxy ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ before 2022, when Russia was still claiming to have nothing to do with such abductions.   Moscow had dropped all pretence in 2022 and is now ‘trying’ Sinchenko under Russian legislation at the Southern District Military Court although he has been in captivity since October 2019.   He was evidently tortured earlier, and it is immensely worrying that the Russians have now moved Sinchenko to SIZO No. 2 in Taganrog.  Although his lawyer was prevented from seeing him in August this year, he did manage to ask Sinchenko at a court hearing (in which the latter took part by video link) why his face looked so battered.  Sinchenko replied that he was being beaten by the SIZO staff, at which point the video link was disconnected. 

It is known that Victoria Roshchyna was held in solitary confinement at the Taganrog SIZO from May to September 2024, and that she had earlier gone on hunger strike in protest at the inhuman conditions.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office responded to news of Victoria’s death by initiating a war crimes investigation under Article 438 § 2 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code).  Russia had no right to abduct the young journalist who was endeavouring to carry out her work on Ukrainian territory which Russia is illegally occupying, nor to hold her in Russian captivity.  Its unwillingness to explain her death or hand over her body make it chillingly likely that it has even more that it wants to conceal.