On October 13th, I commented briefly on the story of 27-year-old Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who would have been added to our list of Putin’s hostages were it not for the fact that she had just been reported, without further detail, to have died in a Russian prison.

Viktoriia is said by her former colleagues to have had “great courage,” and to have been “desperate” to go to Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine to report on the true conditions there. The media outlets for which she freelanced would not send her because of the extreme danger involved, so she went on her own, despite warnings from friends and co-workers. Her stories “were snapshots of life that Ukrainians were not getting from anywhere else.” [Sarah Rainsford, BBC, October 12, 2024.]

She set out for occupied Ukraine last July via Poland and Russia, and was detained at the border and interrogated for several days. After that, all her father knows is that by May she was in Detention Centre No. 2 in Taganrog, in southern Russia — “a facility so notorious for the brutal treatment of many Ukrainians that some dub it the ‘Russian Guantanamo.’” [Id.]

In September, her family was told by another Ukrainian citizen who had just been released from Taganrog that she had seen Viktoriia around September 8th or 9th.

A colleague, Sevgil Musaieva, editor-in-chief at Ukrayinska Pravda, was advised that Viktoriia would be included in a prisoner-of-war swap, and would be back by September 13th. But she wasn’t.

And last week, her father received a terse letter from the Russian Ministry of Defense, advising him of his daughter’s death on September 19th. No details — no cause of death, no reason for the delay — were given. [Id.]

There was information indicating that she had been moved, along with another Ukrainian woman; but neither was included in the prisoner exchange. So where had she been taken? One possibility was to Lefortovo Prison in Moscow, according to Tetyana Katrychenko, director of Media Initiative, though that is not normal practice before a prisoner swap. The fact is, no one knows for sure. [Id.]

Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Yurchyshyn told the BBC in Kyiv:

“A civilian journalist . . . captured by Russia. Then Russia sends a letter that she died? It’s killing. Just the killing of hostages. I don’t know other [sic] word.” [Id.]

What we do know is that another life has been tragically cut short by Putin’s regime because a civilian was doing her job and reporting the uncomfortable truth. Ukraine’s intelligence service has confirmed Viktoriia’s death, and the Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s office is investigating the case as a murder.

BBC has received no comment from Russian authorities. But that’s not surprising either . . . recalling the similarly mysterious death of dissident Alexei Navalny in yet another Russian house of horrors just a few months ago.

I suppose they’ll try to write this one off to “natural causes” as well.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/18/24