Russia's refusal to return body of Ukrainian journalist slows death investigation

washington — 

Investigations into the death in Russian custody of Viktoria Roshchyna are being hampered by Moscow’s refusal to return the body of the 27-year-old Ukrainian journalist.

Ukraine earlier this month announced that Roshchyna had died in Russian custody on September 19. She had been due to be returned as part of a prisoner release.

Petro Yatsenko, from the Ukrainian Coordination Center for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, said that Roshchyna’s body was supposed to be repatriated on October 18, according to a letter that Roshchyna’s father received from Russia’s Defense Ministry. It remains unclear why her body was not included in that exchange.

Roshchyna’s death is “something that happened to a Ukrainian journalist in Russia, by Russian authorities. So all the keys to understanding what happened are in Russia’s hands. And there’s obviously very little hope that Russia will even wish to show even a little bit of the truth,” Karol Luczka told VOA.

Luczka, who monitors Eastern Europe at the International Press Institute in Vienna, said it is “inexplicable and just appalling” that Russian authorities have not released the body.

Roshchyna disappeared in August 2023 during a reporting trip to a Russian-occupied part of Ukraine. Moscow did not acknowledge that she was detained until about eight months after her disappearance.

Andriy Yusov, from Ukraine’s Military Intelligence, confirmed earlier this month that Roshchyna had been slated for a prisoner release. Some reports indicate that Roshchyna died while being transferred from a detention center in Taganrog, a Russian city near the Ukrainian border, to Moscow in preparation for her return home.

Russia’s Washington embassy, Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry did not reply to VOA’s emails requesting comment for this story.

A freelance journalist, Roshchyna contributed to Ukrainian outlets including Ukrainska Pravda. She also freelanced for the Ukrainian Service of VOA’s sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Colleagues remembered her as a journalist committed to reporting on war crimes in Russia’s war against Ukraine, even in dangerous regions.

In 2022, Roshchyna was briefly detained by Russian forces while reporting in Berdiansk, in occupied southeastern Ukraine.

That experience didn’t deter her from continuing to report in Russian-occupied regions.

When Moscow confirmed that Roshchyna was in Russian custody, it was a relief for her supporters, including Elisa Lees Munoz. The executive director of the International Women’s Media Foundation, or IWMF, said the news confirmed that Roshchyna was at least still alive and that there was hope that she would be released.

“Unfortunately, that hope vanished when we learned of her passing,” Munoz told VOA.

The IWMF awarded Roshchyna its 2022 courage award. When the IWMF invited Roshchyna to the U.S. to accept the award in person, Roshchyna declined, saying she needed to stay in Ukraine to keep reporting, Munoz said.

Press freedom groups are calling for Moscow to make public the circumstances of Roshchyna’s death.

Figuring out how Roshchyna died will be difficult without her body, according to Arnaud Froger, the head of investigations at Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, in Paris.

“Without the body, there are only assumptions that we can make,” Froger told VOA. He added that he wouldn’t trust any Russian medical records or autopsy reports without an independent examination of the body.

RSF is investigating Roshchyna’s death to figure out what happened and who was involved. With travel to Russia not possible due to security concerns, RSF is left to push Moscow to release Roshchyna’s body and search for witnesses, Froger said.

United Nations experts are calling for accountability in Roshchyna’s case, as well as the release of her body.

Munoz says she isn’t very hopeful about long-term accountability in Roshchyna’s case.

Without an autopsy, Munoz said it will be difficult to determine whether Roshchyna was killed, or whether she died as a result of poor prison conditions.

“Regardless of whether she died of so-called ‘natural causes,’ it was obviously a result of her captivity,” Munoz said. “I would say that she was killed.”