A FEMALE journalist has died after spending greater than a yr in Russian detention, declare Ukrainian officers.
Victoria Roshchyna, 27, mysteriously disappeared final August whereas reporting from inside Russian-occupied Ukraine with officers now saying she has tragically died as Vladimir Putin’s prisoner of warfare.
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Roshchyna’s household first reported her lacking to Ukrainian officers on August 12 final yr after not listening to from her for days.
The journalist final spoke to her sister every week earlier as she mentioned she had made it by means of routine border checks to get throughout Russian land however did not disclose her location.
An official missing person case was then filed on September 21.
The esteemed Ukrainian reporter was lacking for over 6 months together with her whereabouts lastly revealed in April 2024 when her anxious father was despatched a letter from Moscow.
Russia‘s defence ministry mentioned Roshchyna was being held at a Russian detention centre, in line with Ukraine’s principal journalist union.
The rationale why she was arrested and subjected to months of imprisonment has by no means been made public.
The precise location of the jail has additionally been saved underwraps by Russian officers.
Her dying was first introduced by Petro Yatsenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s prison of warfare coordination headquarters.
He mentioned: “Sadly, details about Victoria’s dying has been confirmed.
“It’s too early to speak in regards to the circumstances of the dying, we’re working to determine them.”
Press rights group Reporters With out Borders say they’re “shocked” over Roshchyna’s dying.
Russian information outlet Mediazona have claimed she could have died when she was being transferred to Moscow from a jail in Taganrog, close to to the Ukrainian border.
The 27-year-old was additionally caught up in Russian aggression in March 2022 when a group of Kremlin spies reportedly kidnapped Roshchyna simply hours after her automotive was shot at.
Victoria claimed on the time that Russians fired at her automobile and compelled a gaggle of press to desert the automotive and lie down hiding in a area.
After returning to the automotive a while after and persevering with on with the journey throughout southern Ukraine Roshchyna was allegedly taken by the Russian Federal Safety Service (FSB), her colleagues mentioned.
She was launched after 10 days in captivity.
Sadly, details about Victoria’s dying has been confirmed
Petro Yatsenko
Roshchyna labored as a freelancer for varied impartial information retailers in Jap Europe.
These included Ukrainska Pravda and the Ukrainian service of US-funded media outlet Radio Free Europe.
In 2022, her frontline reporting was honoured when she obtained the Braveness in Journalism award by the Worldwide Girls’s Media Basis.
Roshchyna is only one of hundreds of Ukrainians identified to be held in Russia after they against Moscow’s iron fist ruling.
Many have been detained in Russian-occupied territories since Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Rights teams say some have confronted torture and abuse by the hands of their captors.
Again in Might, Ukraine claimed greater than two dozen media officers are being held in Russian captivity.
The nation are in negotiations to free these nonetheless locked up.
Many different Russian prisoners jailed on bogus expenses have been launched this yr.
An enormous 24 particular person swap deal between the US and Russia in July noticed journalists, army officers and international opposers to Putin’s regime freed in alternate for Russian prisoners.
These rescued included former US marine Paul Whelan and British-Russian journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza.
Probably the most notable particular person was Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich who had spent 491 days inside a horrific Russian penal system on trumped up expenses.
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