“Her return was agreed, and the last information we know, she was being transferred to Lefortovo prison[in Moscow] to prepare for her return home,” Petro Yatsenko, representative of Ukraine’s prisoner exchange coordination staff, said on a Ukrainian national fundraising telethon late on Thursday.
Roshchyna, 27, went missing in August 2023 in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, where she was reporting about illegal elections held by the Kremlin, the destruction of Kakhovka dam in the Kherson region and the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
“Only in May 2024 in Russia it was confirmed that she was detained and is on the territory of the Russian Federation,” Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said in a statement on Thursday. “Why a young woman died while in Russian captivity is unknown,” the ombudsman added.
Roshchyna’s colleagues mourned her death, remembering her dedication to the profession and her willingness to take risks for a story.
“Nothing could stop Vika if an idea was born in her head. Nothing was more important to her than journalism,” Yevheniia Motorevska, one of Roshchyna’s former editors, wrote on Facebook on Friday. ” Vika has always been where the most important events for the country took place.”
More than 30 Ukrainian journalists are still illegally held in Russia as prisoners, according to Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, who is head of the freedom of speech committee in Ukraine’s parliament.
Overall, thousands of Ukrainian civilians are being held in Russian prisons.
