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

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reacted to the death of Viktoriia Roshchyna, a freelance writer of Ukrainska Pravda and other media outlets, who had 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 Victoriia, her death is a real blow."

Details: Zelenskyy noted that many more journalists, public figures, local officials and ordinary people who were captured during the occupation remain in Russian captivity.

Read Viktoriia Roshchyna’s articles on 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. Defence Intelligence of Ukraine said that she was to be brought back to Ukraine in the near future.
• Later, Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, said that he had received confirmation of Roshchyna’s death from the Russian side.
• On 11 October, the Office of the Prosecutor General reported that the criminal case opened over the disappearance of Ukrainian freelance writer Viktoriia Roshchyna had been reclassified as a war crime combined with premeditated murder. 

Background: 

• In March 2022, 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. In particular, she wrote about the life of occupied Crimea during the war and how a sham referendum was held in occupied Donetsk Oblast. She also made a photo report from the destroyed city of Mariupol. 
• Roshchyna left Ukraine for Poland on 25 July 2023 to travel to the occupied territory. She planned to reach the occupied part of Ukraine's east via Russia in three days.
• Roshchyna disappeared on 3 August 2023 in the Russian-occupied territory from where she was reporting.
• In May 2024, Russia admitted for the first time that it had detained Roshchyna. The Russian Ministry of Defence sent a letter of confirmation to her father, Volodymyr Roshchyn.

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