UKRAINE, Oct 11 — Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who went missing in August last year in the territory temporarily occupied by Russia, had died, said Petro Yatsenko, head of the press service of the coordination headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war.

The Russians had already detained the journalist once before at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. It happened on March 15, 2022, in the occupied city of Berdiansk, Zaporizhzhia region. Then Viktoriia was released a week later. 

On August 3, 2023, she went missing during a trip to the temporarily occupied territories of the Russian Federation. 

A few hours before the information about the journalist’s death became known, the spokesman of the Main Directorate of Intelligence, Andrii Yusov, said in a commentary to Suspilne that Roshchyna was on the list for the exchange that was to take place soon.

Yusov said that, according to the latest information, the journalist was transferred to the Lefortovo prison in Moscow.

Roshchyna has worked for several Ukrainian media and, in 2022, received the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Courage in Journalism Award.

UPD from Oct 14, 9:49 a.m.: Mistranslation in the headline fixed.

Read more