An award-winning Ukrainian journalist was stabbed and electrocuted before her death in Russian prison, a new investigation found.
Victoria Roshchyna was declared dead in September in a letter from the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The 27-year-old’s body is still not returned to her family, and the events surrounding her death remain unclear.
torture chambers by Moscow’s forces in the Zaporizhzhia region. Facebook
Russia never told the family a cause of death.
Now a new investigation from Reporters Without Borders and three Ukrainian news outlets sheds light on some of the circumstances surrounding Roschyna’s detention and what apparently led to her death.
Her cellmate, tracked by Ukrainian media Slidstvo, said Russian interrogators used electric shocks and inflicted knife wounds whenever they questioned Roshchyna.
“I saw several scars on her body… She had a knife wound, a fresh scar between her wrist and elbow in the soft tissue…about three centimeters long,” the cellmate said.
Roshchyna reportedly described one of the torturers as “brutal, unhinged.”
The cellmate said the journalist repeatedly begged for help but was denied medication. Her health deteriorated rapidly, and she started shedding weight, weighing only 66 pounds before she died. She became so weak she couldn’t stand on her own.
Soon after reaching the occupied Ukrainian territories via Russia in the summer of 2023, Roshchyna was arrested in Enerhodar, near the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
She was spotted by Russian authorities using a drone.
For months, her whereabouts were unknown. It wasn’t until May 2024 that Russian authorities officially acknowledged her detention.
The last anyone heard or saw her was Sept. 8, when she was removed from her cell and taken to an unknown location.
Russia stated she had died in captivity on Sept. 19.
