The body of the Dead Ukrainian journalist in detention in Russia was returned with traces of torture and missing organs
A colleague holds a photo of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna during an event in her memory. Photo: Anatolii Stepanov / AFP / Profimedia
The body of a Ukrainian journalist, Victoria Roscina, who died in Russian detention after being held for months in isolation, was returned to Ukraine with visible signs of torture, according to Ukrainian prosecutors, quoted by CNN.
The Kiev authorities announced that the journalist's remains were repatriated in February, during a corporate exchange between Ukraine and Russia. The Red, which was 27 years old, had disappeared in August 2023, during a trips to the territories occupied by Russia in southeastern Ukraine.
Yuriy Belousov, the head of the Department for War Crimes within the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, said that the autopsy identified “numerous signs of torture and bad treatments … including scratches and bleeding on several parts of the body, a broken coast and possible traces of electroshocks”.
He said that the specialists established that the wounds were caused as long as the red was still alive.
The body was identified by repeated DNA analyzes, although it was sent by the Russian side labeled as a “unidentified man”. The advanced state of degradation did not allow to establish the exact cause of death, but Ukraine collaborates with international experts to obtain additional conclusions.
Victoria Roscina, 27, disappeared in August 2023, after entering an area controlled by Russian troops to document the lives of civilians under occupation. According to journalist Evgeniya Motorevska, former editor at the Hromadske, where Roşcina worked, she was “determined to do her job as best” and “it was always where the most important events for the country happened.”
The family had no news about it for nine months. Moscow officially acknowledged that it only held it at the beginning of 2024. Like thousands of Ukrainian civilians, the Roşcina was detained by the Russian authorities in the occupied territories, transported to Russia and held without accusations or trial.
In September 2024, she was declared dead, and the family officially learned about her death only a month later, when she received a notification from Russia.
The spokesman of the Coordination Center for the Treatment of War Prisoners in Ukraine, Petro Iațenko, said that Redcin had died during a transfer from a detention center in Taganog, southern Russia, to Moscow. He stated that the transfer would have taken place in the perspective of an exchange of prisoners.
The detention center in Taganog is known for abusive treatments applied to detainees. CNN has previously reported on cases of torture, lack of food and medical care, reported by former prisoners.
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