Ukrainian WHRD and journalist Victoria Roshchyna forcibly disappeared trying to get through Russia to the Russian-occupied territories
Ukrainian woman human rights defender and journalist Victoria Roshchyna was forcibly disappeared in August 2023 when she travelled through Russia to the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine to conduct a journalistic investigation into the civilian population of these regions suffering from the war.
Victoria Roshchyna works to promote the observance of the right to a fair trial and freedom of assembly, and also reports on the persecution of activists and public figures, as well as illegal construction in Kyiv, which has been accompanied by the destruction of urban parks and buildings of historical importance. Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Victoria has shifted her focus towards documenting war crimes and human rights violations, collecting evidence, in particular, in the Russian-occupied territories.
Prior to this, she spent several years working for Hromadske, one of the prominent Ukrainian media outlets, then subsequently as a freelance reporter. She often collaborated with Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe (Ukrainian service), Ukrainska Pravda.
In recognition of her important work, Victoria Roshchyna was awarded the Courage in Journalism Award 2022 by International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), an organisation working internationally to elevate the status of women in the media.
Ukrainian woman human rights defender and journalist Victoria Roshchyna was forcibly disappeared in August 2023 when she travelled through Russia to the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine to conduct a journalistic investigation into the civilian population of these regions suffering from the war.
Victoria Roshchyna works to promote the observance of the right to a fair trial and freedom of assembly, and also reports on the persecution of activists and public figures, as well as illegal construction in Kyiv, which has been accompanied by the destruction of urban parks and buildings of historical importance. Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Victoria has shifted her focus towards documenting war crimes and human rights violations, collecting evidence, in particular, in the Russian-occupied territories.
Prior to this, she spent several years working for Hromadske, one of the prominent Ukrainian media outlets, then subsequently as a freelance reporter. She often collaborated with Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe (Ukrainian service), Ukrainska Pravda.
In recognition of her important work, Victoria Roshchyna was awarded the Courage in Journalism Award 2022 by International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), an organisation working internationally to elevate the status of women in the media.
In early October 2023, the family of Victoria Roshchyna reported that she had gone missing while she was trying to get to the Russian-occupied territories of southern Ukraine, a journey that brought the woman human rights defender through Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Russia. Victoria's father, Volodymyr Roshchyn, said that she left Ukraine for Poland on 25 July 2023. It subsequently came to light that Roshchyna planned to gather information about Russia's illegal elections in the occupied territories of Ukraine. She was also investigating the consequences of the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam for the people who were located in the Russian-occupied part of the Kherson region, as well as the situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant which had been seized and mined by Russian troops.
On 3 August 2023 Victoria Roshchyna called her sister and mentioned that she had made it through border checks, but did not tell them exactly where she was. This was the last time she was in contact with either her family or colleagues before she disappeared. Information also later emerged from the journalist's alleged local contact in the area that she had reached the Russian-occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region. However, this information could not be confirmed or denied by any other source.
On 12 August 2023, Victoria Roshchyna was reported missing to Ukrainian law enforcement agencies. On 20 September 2023, the woman human rights defender’s family reported her disappearance to the state-run "Ukrainian national peace-building center”, a Ukraine based institution, tasked with carrying out the mandate of the National Information Bureau in Ukraine, in accordance with the Geneva Conventions on the Treatment of Prisoners of War and on the Protection of the Civilian Population in Time of War. Later they received a response from this institution which confirmed that Victoria Roshchyna had been detained by Russian authorities. The precise whereabouts of the woman human rights defender, however, still remain unknown, giving grounds for belief that this was an enforced disappearance.
Concerns about Victoria Roshchyna’s disappearance have been so far expressed by the IWMF, PEN Ukraine, the National union of journalists of Ukraine and several media outlets who have previously cooperated with Victoria Roshchyna.
This is not the first time that Victoria Roshchyna was targeted by Russian forces. In March 2022, she was captured by Russian invaders while travelling to Mariupol in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, which was then under siege by the Russian army, to collect information for an article about civilians under attack. She was held in Russian-occupied Berdiansk in the Zaporizhzhia region for 10 days. As Victoria later wrote in her article for Hromadske, she was interrogated by the Federal security service of Russia (FSB) who threatened her with imprisonment and sexual violence. She was released on condition that she record a video in which she deny any claims against the Russian occupiers.
