Captured, tortured, vanished: what it takes to cover the Russian occupation in Ukraine. The case of Victoria Roshchyna

Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna was a rare, passionate type to risk her life and report from the Russia-occupied territories, where not only Ukrainian media were banned, but being part of Ukrainian media would almost certainly mean prison, at least. Victoria was young, healthy and capable of taking long and risky trips on her own when she was captured in the Russia-occupied territories in summer 2023. By that time she’d become probably the only Ukrainian journalist to have covered life under the Russian occupation in Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities.
She spent over a year in Russian captivity incommunicado - with no charges and no rights - when her parents received a short formal email from the Russian Ministry of Defense: “Your daughter died on 19 September 2024, her body will be returned during one of the POW swaps”. No further details were provided. Three months after this notification Victoria hasn’t been returned home and the circumstances of her captivity and death remain unclear. She was just 27 years old and the first Ukrainian civil journalist to be reportedly killed in Russian captivity. Her case is not the only one – the Ukrainian Institute of Mass Information reports there are at least 30 Ukrainian civil journalists imprisoned in Russia, most of them also without charge and with no clear chance to return home.
The discussion will include colleagues from Slidstvo.info, who have done a tremendous amount of work investigating Vitoria’s case, and Reporters without Borders, who have been reporting extensively and raising awareness about her case globally.
Moderated by Angelina Kariakina.