{"id":59438,"date":"2025-04-30T06:51:24","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T04:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=59438"},"modified":"2026-04-30T02:29:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T00:29:24","slug":"the-monstrous-russian-torture-against-ukrainian-journalist-viktoria-roshchina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/04\/30\/the-monstrous-russian-torture-against-ukrainian-journalist-viktoria-roshchina\/","title":{"rendered":"The monstrous Russian torture against Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchina"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Ukrainian newspaper Ukrainska Pravda published chilling news yesterday about one of its contributors, journalist Viktoria Roshchina.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/08\/06\/a-head-and-two-hands-severed-the-atrocious-russian-treatment-to-ukrainian-prisoners\/\">A head and two hands severed: the atrocious Russian treatment to Ukrainian prisoners<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/05\/28\/the-russian-torture-and-ill-treatment-against-the-ukrainian-prisoners-of-war\/\">The Russian torture and ill-treatment against the Ukrainian prisoners of war<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p><big>The journalist was arrested by the Russians on August 3, 2023<\/big><\/p>\n<p>The very comprehensive information <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pravda.com.ua\/articles\/2025\/04\/29\/7509612\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">can be read here in Ukrainian<\/a>. Roshchina disappeared in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pravda.com.ua\/news\/2023\/10\/4\/7422613\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">on August 3, 2023<\/a>. The journalist was born on October 6, 1996, and was 26 years old at the time. In April 2024, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pravda.com.ua\/news\/2024\/05\/27\/7457900\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Russia confirmed that Roshchina was detained in that country<\/a>. This was not the first time the journalist had been detained by the Russians: in March 2022, <strong>she had already been captured by and held by the invaders in Berdyansk for 10 days<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54486133664_cd8e7ed882_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54486133664_52fda06b08_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><big>His body was handed over by Russia on February 14, 2025<\/big><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pravda.com.ua\/news\/2024\/10\/10\/7479122\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">On October 10, 2024, Ukraine confirmed the journalist's death on Russian territory<\/a>, but without official confirmation from Russia. The information was revealed by Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR), which stated that the journalist's body would soon be returned. On February 14, 2025, <strong>Russia handed over the bodies of 757 Ukrainian prisoners to Ukraine<\/strong> in an exchange of deceased between the two sides. Among the bodies handed over, <strong>the one marked with the number 757 was marked \"unidentified male\" and the acronym \"\u0421\u041f\u0410\u0421\"<\/strong>. Ukrainska Pravda <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pravda.com.ua\/articles\/2025\/04\/29\/7509612\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">notes<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>During the initial examination, pathologists determined that <strong>the body was a woman<\/strong>. An examination by investigators from the Prosecutor General's Office revealed <strong>a 99 percent match with the DNA of journalist Viktoria Roshchina<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><big>\u201cNumerous signs of torture\u201d were found on his body<\/big><\/p>\n<p>The Ukrainian newspaper added: <em>\"<strong>Numerous signs of torture and ill-treatment were found on the victim's body<\/strong>, including abrasions and bleeding on several parts of the body and a broken rib. <strong>Experts also saw possible signs of electric shock<\/strong>.\"<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54486133659_67b5457eb3_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54486133659_269c1a288e_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>An examination of the Ukrainian journalist's body has also revealed that <strong>Roshchina's body <em>\"was brought to Ukraine with signs of an autopsy performed on Russian territory.\"<\/em><\/strong> Ukrainska Pravda reveals the gruesome details found on the journalist's body: <em>\"<strong>Some internal organs were missing. In particular, the brain, eyeballs, and part of the trachea.<\/strong>\"<\/em> The Ukrainian newspaper added:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>An international expert pathologist we consulted believes that <strong>the absence of these organs may have obscured the fact that death was due to strangulation or asphyxiation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>As we were able to find out, <strong>the abbreviation \u0421\u041f\u0410\u0421 may indicate the \"official cause of death\"<\/strong> established by the Russian side, and literally means the following: <strong>total damage to the arteries of the heart<\/strong> (from Russian - \u0441\u0443\u043c\u0430\u0440\u043d\u0435 \u0443\u0440\u0430\u0436\u0435\u043d\u043d\u044f \u0430\u0440\u0442\u0435\u0440\u0456\u0439 \u0441\u0435\u0440\u0446\u044f).<\/p>\n<p><strong>The official investigation is ongoing.<\/strong> Perhaps this will shed light on Viktoria's detention conditions and <strong>allow us to identify the Russians involved in our colleague's torture<\/strong>. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54486209973_9eb6d39201_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54486209973_87ca6be724_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><big>A report reconstructs what happened to Roshchina<\/big><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@ForbiddenStories\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Forbidden Stories<\/a>, a Paris-based initiative that continues the investigations into the lives of dead journalists, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mRaiOvKH_e8\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">yesterday published a report<\/a> titled <em>\"<strong>Russia\u2019s \u2018Ghost Detainees\u2019: The Investigation That Cost Viktoriia Roshchyna Her Life<\/strong>.\"<\/em> The video description states the following:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\"You can only understand the full picture by going there.\"<br \/>\nJournalist <strong>Viktoriia Roshchyna<\/strong> lived by these words \u2014 and paid the ultimate price for them. <strong>She wanted to report from the Ukrainian occupied zones<\/strong>, regardless of the danger it entailed, <strong>to investigate the torture of civilians in informal detention centers. She became one of these \u2018Ghost Detainees\u2019 and died in custody.<\/strong> Members of the consortium led by Forbidden Stories retraced her path and continued her final investigation. <\/p>\n<p>In this investigation, we also reveal the identities of several members of the Taganrog prison hierarchy and <strong>identify 29 Russian prisons where torture is systematic.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Here you can watch the Forbidden Stories video<\/strong> about that brave Ukrainian journalist (it's in English):<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Russia\u2019s \u2018Ghost Detainees\u2019: The Investigation That Cost Viktoriia Roshchyna Her Life\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mRaiOvKH_e8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The torture and murder of Viktoria Roshchina are <strong>a new example of the atrocious war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Russian invaders in Ukraine<\/strong>. The West cannot remain impassive in the face of these practices, which are reminiscent of those committed by totalitarian regimes in Europe in the last century. <strong>Many have wondered for years whether the horrors of Nazism and Communism could be repeated in today's world.<\/strong> Russia is giving a very clear and brutal answer to that question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ukrainian newspaper Ukrainska Pravda published chilling news yesterday about one of its contributors, journalist Viktoria Roshchina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,10720],"tags":[10731,16153,15307,24333],"class_list":["post-59438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-communication","tag-russia","tag-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-of-2022","tag-ukraine","tag-viktoria-roshchina"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59438"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}