Human rights experts concerned over uncertainty surrounding Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna’s fate

A group of UN independent human rights experts are asking for clarification of the reported death of Victoria Roshchyna, an award-winning Ukrainian journalist who went missing while covering the Russian-occupied area. Her status has caused a lot of suffering to her family since, as international law professors have pointed out, subjecting people to limbo constitutes torture. Roshchyna, winner of the 2022 International Women’s Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award, was first arrested in Melitopol and then expelled to Russia.

Detention for Unexplained Reasons, Indefinite Telecommunications

As to Roshchyna’s case, Russian authorities have only given two short statements so far. The first is dated April 17, 2024, in response to which she only informed him that she was in Russia. A letter delivered to her father later on October 10, 2024, by the Russian Ministry of Defence under the signature of V.Koh stated that she had passed on September 19 without offering any annexation or additional information regarding the event.

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The last unofficial information associated with Roshchyna’s location put her in a detention facility in Taganrog on September 8, 2022 – a facility where Ukrainian civilians and prisoners are tortured. She then disappeared and no one around her was able to ascertain her whereabouts subsequently, which means that her safety was jeopardized as well.

Part of a Broader Pattern

The UN experts have called for Roshchyna’s body to be returned if her death has been ascertained, insisting on an independent investigation and an autopsy. Her case is far from unique; at least 1,672 civilians from Ukraine are now detained in Russian-controlled areas, including 25 journalists.

The experts’ note that Russian authorities would be rightfully held accountable for arbitrary deprivation of life, in state custody, if her death. They have urged the Russian authorities to report on the state and location of all the Ukrainians arrested, and to free all those detained in Russia and other non-Ukrainian territories arbitrarily.