TRIBUTES HAVE BEEN paid to Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna who died while in a Russian detention facility.

The 27-year-old reporter’s death was announced by the Russian Defence Ministry yesterday. A statement said Roshchyna died on 19 September 2024 while in detention.

Roshchyna was well-known in Ukraine for her reporting that detailed first-hand accounts of the Russian occupation of Crimea. She was detailed in August 2023 after travelling to Russian-occupied Ukraine to continue her reporting.

Roshchyna’s award-winning work had been widely recognised for highlighting human-rights abuses and in 2022 she was awarded the Courage in Journalism award by the International Women’s Media Foundation for her reporting on the Ukrainian frontline.

In a statement on X this afternoon, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy paid tribute to Roshchyna. 

For all of us in Ukraine, the issue of captured and deported people remains incredibly painful. These are adults and children, many civilians who are now held in prisons and camps in Russia.

Yesterday, it was reported that Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna died in Russian… pic.twitter.com/9AECwB6ncY

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 11, 2024

“For many Ukrainian journalists who knew Victoria, her death is a heavy blow,” he said on the foot of a meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican where the pair discussed recusing captured Ukrainian citizens.

Fellow journalist Anastasia Magazova said the news of Roshchyna’s death was ‘terrible and tragic’. “RIP, dear brave colleague,” she said, adding that Roshchyna had been on hunger strike “for many days”.

The Institute of Mass Information, an international collective of human rights and media advocates, have paid tribute to the journalist and sent its “deepest condolences” to Roshchyna’s family.

In a statement, the organisation said that it has “every reason to believe that her death was either the result of intentional murder or a consequence of the cruel treatment and violence she suffered while in Russian captivity”.

It reasoned that Roshchyna had been fully healthy before travelling to Russia-held Ukraine.

The Institute has called on the International Red Cross, the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe to launch separate probes into the circumstances around Roshchyna’s death.