More than 18 months after Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna died in a Russian prison, witnesses interviewed by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) have provided new details about the days leading up to her death. These first-hand accounts have contributed new pieces to a puzzle that the Kremlin still refuses to reveal in its entirety. The international community must obtain explanations for her death from the Russian regime.
“Vika isn’t getting up!” On the morning of 19 September 2024, in Detention Centre No. 3 in the city of Kizel, in Russia’s Perm region — 1,700 kilometres east of Ukraine as the crow flies — Victoria Roshchyna did not get up from her bed. Jailed by Russia since her arrest in August 2023 in the occupied territories of Ukraine, this independent Ukrainian journalist lay motionless. The detainees with whom she shared the cell alerted the guards. They arrived, evacuated the other prisoners, and ordered the reporter to stand up – in vain. Victoria Roshchyna was then taken away, ostensibly still unconscious, but it is impossible to know whether she was still alive or not.
Did Victoria Roshchyna die in her cell or elsewhere in the prison? The new witnesses that RSF has been able to speak to, who saw or heard the journalist in the days and weeks preceding her death, do not know. However, they all attested to her extremely weak condition, supporting the findings of an initial investigation carried out in 2025 by RSF and the Ukrainian investigative media outlet Slidstvo.info into the torture she suffered behind bars. In February 2025, five months after her death, Russia returned the journalist’s mutilated body to Ukraine, but, to this day, has said nothing about the exact cause of her death.
Exhausted during her final transfer
On 19 September 2024, the day of her death, Victoria Roshchyna had been detained in Kizel for over a week. She had been transferred there from Prison No. 2 in Taganrog, a city in southwestern Russia. A witness who was transferred with her says it took approximately four days – by train and then by van – to cover the nearly 2,000 kilometres between the two cities. Those who saw her during this journey describe a skeletal woman who was unsteady on her feet and had a “yellowish” complexion, reminiscent of the “Holodomor victims” – the infamous Soviet famine of 1932-1933 that killed millions in Ukraine. Some detainees shared their food with her and knew her by reputation. She was the journalist who had been arrested for “telling the truth” and who refused to eat. “She said she wouldn’t eat as long as our boys were being tortured,” according to one of the witnesses, who remains anonymous for safety reasons.
RSF was able to confirm that, despite a difficult transfer, Victoria Roshchyna did indeed arrive alive in Kizel, corroborating a September 2025 investigation by the Ukrainian investigative media outlet Slidstvo.info, which obtained her death certificate issued on 19 September 2024 in the Perm region.
“She wasn’t well”
Victoria Roshchyna was exhausted when she arrived in Kizel. She struggled to stay standing and suffered from fainting spells. The Russian prison system nevertheless continued to mistreat her in Kizel Detention Centre No. 3, located in the Ural region where violence against prisoners is systematic. All Ukrainian inmates, both civilians and military personnel, are beaten, notably during cell inspections. Victoria Roshchyna was no exception.
Conditions in the prison were inhumane, with overcrowded, damp and freezing cells. By mid-September, temperatures were already low. “We were shivering,” said one released soldier. After more than 13 months in captivity, Victoria Roshchyna was extremely weak as a result of physical and psychological mistreatment.
On 18 September 2024, the day before she died, “she wasn’t well,” according to another witness. She reportedly asked the guard for tea, even offering to pay later. The mocking response came quickly: “You must have come to the wrong place. You’re not in a position to ask for anything.” As she felt unwell, a member of the prison medical staff reportedly came to her cell and gave her what might have been an injection. “They gave her something, probably to bring her back to her senses,” said a witness. Nothing more is known about what she was given. The following day was the official date of her death.
Ukraine seeking answers
The body that Russia returned to Ukraine was missing several organs, including the brain, larynx and eyeballs, and bore traces of torture, according to the French media consortium Forbidden Stories. The Ukrainian authorities in Kyiv are struggling to establish the truth, and the condition of her body makes it almost impossible to determine the cause of her death, the Ukrainian prosecutor-general’s office told RSF. The office added that this case is far from isolated. Russia has repeatedly returned bodies in a state that prevents any independent examination. The office told RSF that Victoria Roshchyna’s body had multiple injuries, but it could not, at this stage, confirm their direct link to her death.
“Victoria Roshchyna had no strength left. She should have been released and received urgent medical care, as her health had been in a critical state for many months. The Russian authorities kept her behind bars in inhumane and degrading conditions, even going so far as to deliberately transfer her thousands of kilometres from Ukraine. The Russian prison system is responsible for her death.
The Ukrainian authorities are currently conducting a preliminary investigation into the director of Kizel Prison No. 3 — where Victoria Roshchyna and Yevhen Matveyev, the Ukrainian mayor of Dniprorudne, an occupied southeastern city, died in September 2024 — as well as into the director of Taganrog Prison No. 2, where the journalist was previously detained.
Since RSF began its investigations into Victoria Roshchyna, the NGO’s requests for comment from the Russian authorities have gone unanswered. The witnesses interviewed by RSF remain anonymous for safety reasons.
