Viktoria Roshchyna / Facebook
The body of Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, who died in Russian custody in unclear circumstances in September, has still not been returned to Ukraine, as promised by the Russian authorities, a Ukrainian official told public broadcaster Suspilne on Sunday.
Petro Yatsenko, a representative of the Ukrainian government’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, said that Roshchyna’s body was not among those transferred to Ukraine during a swap on Friday in which Russia and Ukraine exchanged the bodies of some 590 servicemen.
Yatsenko added that Ukrainian officials had begun preparation for Roshchyna’s repatriation immediately after they received the news of her death earlier this month. On 10 October, Roshchnyna’s father received a letter from the Russian Defence Ministry informing him that his daughter had died on 19 September and that her body would be returned to Ukraine as part of “an exchange of prisoners’ bodies”.
Yatsenko said Ukrainian officials could not say when Roshchyna’s body would be returned to Ukraine, adding that Russia could be delaying its repatriation to hide signs of torture, though he stressed that it was still “too early” to discuss the cause of Roshchyna’s death.
Roshchyna, who was 27 at the time of her death, worked as a freelance journalist for independent news outlets including Ukrainska Pravda, Hromadske, and Radio Free Europe. She was detained by Russian forces in August 2023 while reporting from Russia-occupied eastern Ukraine.
After her arrest, Roshchyna was reportedly taken to Taganrog, southern Russia, where, according to Tetyana Katrychenko of Ukrainian human rights organisation Media Initiative for Human Rights, she was held in solitary confinement in “one of the harshest” pretrial detention centres in the country.
Roshchyna was reportedly taken from Taganrog and transported to an unknown location ahead of the prisoner exchange she had been due to take part in on 13 September.
It is not known what happened to Roshchyna next. Earlier this month, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies opened an investigation into Roshchyna’s death on charges of premeditated murder and the violation of laws and customs of war.
