Her death is a real blow – Zelenskyy on journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna's death in Russian captivity

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reacted to news of the death of Viktoriia Roshchyna, a freelance writer for Ukrainska Pravda and other media outlets who has died in Russian captivity.

Source: Zelenskyy on Telegram

Quote: "It became known yesterday [10 October] that Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna had died in captivity in Russia. For many Ukrainian journalists who knew Viktoriia, her death is a real blow."

Details: Zelenskyy noted that many more journalists, public figures, community leaders and ordinary people who were captured during the occupation are still in Russian captivity.

Read Viktoriia Roshchyna’s articles for Ukrainska Pravda

Previously:

• 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. Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence said she had been due to be brought back to Ukraine in the near future.
• Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, later said he had received confirmation of Roshchyna’s death from the Russian side.
• On 11 October, the Office of the Prosecutor General announced that the criminal case opened in connection with Roshchyna’s disappearance of Ukrainian has been reclassified as a war crime combined with premeditated murder. 

Background: 

• In March 2022, Viktoriia Roshchyna was captured by the Russians and held for 10 days in Berdiansk, Donetsk Oblast.
• In 2022, Roshchyna wrote a series of articles for Ukrainska Pravda from the temporarily occupied territories. Her work included stories about life in occupied Crimea during the war, the sham referendum in occupied Donetsk Oblast, and a photo report from the devastated city of Mariupol. 
• On 25 July 2023, Roshchyna left Ukraine for Poland, planning to make the three-day journey via Russia to the occupied part of Ukraine's east.
• 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 Defence Ministry sent a letter confirming this to her father, Volodymyr Roshchyn.

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