Journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna was held in one of Russia's most brutal detention centres – human rights advocate

Viktoriia Roshchyna, a freelance writer of Ukrainska Pravda, whose death in Russian captivity was recently confirmed, was held in Detention Centre No. 2 in Taganrog, Rostov Oblast, Russia. Former prisoners have described this facility as notorious for its extreme torture methods.

Source: Tetiana Katrychenko, Executive Director of the human rights organisation Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIPL)

Details: The human rights advocate revealed that Roshchyna was held in at least two prisons: Penal Colony No. 77 in temporarily occupied Berdiansk and Detention Centre No. 2 in Taganrog, Russia.

"Both facilities have been used by the Russians since the first months of the full-scale invasion to detain both Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, including women," Katrychenko noted.

Quote: "Taganrog (and Berdiansk too, where they tortured prisoners with electric shocks) is known as one of the most brutal places for Ukrainians in Russia. It's called hell on earth. In particular, Azov fighters from Azovstal are held there. Released prisoners recount horrific torture. There, everyone who the Russians want to label as criminals is forced to confess to crimes they did not commit. Later, they are transferred to Rostov for trial."

Details: Katrychenko added, "Viktoriia was held in Taganrog from at least May to September 2024, in solitary confinement. Just before a planned exchange on 13 September 2024, she and at least one other woman from occupied Melitopol were taken out of Taganrog. It is unknown where they were taken to."

Detention Centre No. 2 in Taganrog is considered one of Russia’s most notorious for its brutality. Since April 2022, defenders of Mariupol have been sent there.

Released prisoners of war have reported that the guards at Taganrog use rubber batons, wooden hammers, and electric shock devices for torture. Prisoners are beaten during intake, daily searches, and interrogations. During interrogations, detainees are forced to confess to crimes they did not commit.

Quote: "A man shared my cell. They had been taking him for interrogations every day. The Abkhaz guards told him they would beat him until he signed a confession. They drowned him in water, threw a cloth over his face, and poured water on it. As a result, he signed everything," one of the released soldiers said, whose name was withheld by MIPL for security reasons.

Another former prisoner added, "We constantly heard screams – someone was always being beaten. Sometimes the screams would go on for 15-20 minutes, and afterward, the person could not stand. They were thrown back into the cell, almost unconscious."

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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