Kiev is investigating the death of a Ukrainian journalist in Russian custody as a war crime – Novaya Gazeta Europe

Ukrainian law enforcement authorities have opened an investigation into intentional murder and violation of laws and customs of war in connection with the death of Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna in Russian captivity, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine said on Friday.

Roshchyna, who was 27 at the time of her death, worked as a freelance journalist for independent news agencies such as Ukrainska Pravda, Hromadske and Radio Free Europe. She was arrested by Russian forces in August 2023 while reporting from Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed in a letter to her father in April.

Roshchyna’s father received an Oct. 2 notice from the Russian Defense Ministry on Thursday saying she died on Sept. 19 and that her body would be returned to Ukraine, Ukrainian news agency Graty reported.

According to Tetyana Katrychenko, head of the Ukrainian human rights organization Media Initiative for Human Rights, Roshchyna was held in solitary confinement at a pre-trial detention center in Taganrog, southern Russia, from May to September. Katrychenko said the Taganrog detention camp was “one of the cruelest” places of detention for Ukrainian prisoners in Russia.

“They call it hell on earth,” Katrychenko said, adding that members of Ukraine’s Azov Battalion and those who defended Mariupol’s Azov Valley plant in the first days of the war were held there. “Those released report terrible torture,” Katrychenko added, noting that prison guards forced prisoners to confess to crimes and then transferred them to Rostov-on-Don for trial.

Roshchyna was reportedly picked up from Taganrog and transported to an unknown location ahead of a prisoner exchange in which she was scheduled to take part on September 13.

In a statement on Friday, the European External Action Service said the EU was “horrified” by Roshchyna’s death and called for “a thorough and independent investigation” into the circumstances.