Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
Viktoria Roshchina, 27, has become the first Ukrainian journalist to die in Russian captivity, and the twelfth to be killed as a result of reporting the war.
She went missing in August 2023 while reporting from Russian-occupied territories in southern and eastern Ukraine. In May this year, Russia’s defence ministry confirmed in a letter to her father that she was being held in Russia (reportedly in Taganrog prison, described by survivors as “Putin’s scariest”).
A subsequent letter said she died on 19 September. Ukrainian officials say Roshchina was scheduled to be transferred to Lefortovo jail in Moscow for a prisoner exchange, but the circumstances of her death remain unclear.
According to Ukraine’s Institute of Mass Information another 29 Ukrainian journalists are currently being held in Russia.