Body of journalist Victoria Roshchyna returned to Ukraine months after death in Russian captivity
The body of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, who died in Russian captivity last September, has been returned to Ukraine, Deputy Interior Minister Leonid Tymchenko said in an interview with the Ukrainian outlet Censor.net published on Thursday.
According to Tymchenko, Russia returned Roshchyna’s body in late February and she was identified through DNA testing. As reported by the Kyiv Independent, Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Yurchyshyn later wrote on Facebook that officials held off on announcing that Roshchyna’s body had been repatriated so that it could be independently identified.
Given the torture and the condition of her body, Roshchyna’s family requested not one, but several DNA examinations. As far as I know, the examinations were conducted not only in Ukraine but also abroad to make sure that it was definitely [Victoria].
Victoria Roshchyna went missing in August 2023 while reporting in a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. It was later reported that she had been captured by Russian FSB agents and held in a prison in the occupied city of Berdyansk before being transferred to another prison in the Russian city of Taganrog.
According to a documentary released in March, Roshchyna was tortured and subjected to inhumane conditions while in Russian captivity. Ukrainian officials confirmed her death last October, after Russian officials informed the journalist’s family that she had died in detention on September 19, 2024. She was 27 years old.
