The body of a 27-year-old journalist has been returned to her country, reportedly mutilated and bearing signs of torture, after months of being held incommunicado by Russian authorities.
Victoria Roshchyna, a Ukrainian reporter who went missing in August 2023 during a trip to Russian-occupied Ukraine, was confirmed dead earlier this year.
Her remains were returned to Ukraine in February as part of a body exchange — but investigators now say her final months were marked by cruelty and horror, CNN reports.
Yuriy Belousov, head of the war crimes department at Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office, confirmed the forensic team had found “numerous signs of torture and ill-treatment,” including “abrasions and hemorrhages on various parts of the body, a broken rib and possible traces of electric shock.”
He added the injuries occurred while Roshchyna was still alive.
DNA tests confirmed the body’s identity, despite it arriving from Russia mislabelled as “an unidentified male.” Her brain, eyeballs, and part of her trachea were missing — an act colleagues and investigators believe was a deliberate attempt to obscure the true cause of her death, per NBC News.
“Vika was always where the most important events for the country took place. And she would have continued to do this for many years, but the Russians killed her,” said journalist Evgeniya Motorevskaya, a former editor of Hromadske, in a tribute.
Roshchyna was known for reporting from Russian-occupied territories when few dared to go, working for independent outlets like Ukrainska Pravda and Radio Free Europe. She had traveled to Zaporizhzhia to report on Russia’s detention and torture of Ukrainian civilians — but disappeared shortly after entering the region.
Her family had no idea what had happened until nearly nine months later, when Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed she was being held in a detention facility in Taganrog — a notorious centre accused of widespread abuse and inhumane conditions. Then, in September, Russia told her family she had died during a transfer to Moscow — a move said to have been part of a planned prisoner exchange.
By then, it was too late.
The journalist's remains were delivered back to Ukraine missing key organs, and already bearing evidence of what officials believe may have been a cover-up.
A coalition of investigative journalists from more than a dozen international outlets — including Forbidden Stories — has since joined Ukrainian media in trying to reconstruct her final days.
Journalist Evgeniya Motorevskaya - who had worked with Roshchyna at Hromadske, a Ukrainian media outlet - said in a statement, per CNN: “For her, there was nothing more important than journalism. Vika was always where the most important events for the country took place. And she would have continued to do this for many years, but the Russians killed her."
The Ukrainian government says thousands of civilians remain in Russian custody, often without trial or legal representation — many of them abducted from occupied territories and transported across the border into Russian detention sites.
“The issue of civilian hostages abducted and held by Russia requires increased international attention and immediate and strong response,” Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Georgiy Tykhy wrote on X.
She was the first Ukrainian journalist known to have died in Russian captivity.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has spoken out about what he believes were Putin's true intentions during his '100 Days' interview with ABC News.
“If it weren’t for me, I think [Putin] want to take over the whole country [Ukraine],” Trump said in the interview published on Tuesday. “I will tell you, I was not happy when I saw Putin shooting missiles into a few towns and cities.”
This is not the first time Trump has openly criticized Putin this week.
In a lengthy post on Truth Social - shared on Saturday (April 26) - Trump took aim at "The Failing New York Times" and how the publication would slam any deal he orchestrated between Russia and Ukraine - "even if it’s the greatest deal ever made".
"This is Sleepy Joe Biden’s War, not mine," Trump added. "It was a loser from day one, and should have never happened, and wouldn’t have happened if I were President at the time. I’m just trying to clean up the mess that was left to me by Obama and Biden, and what a mess it is."
However, in a surprising turn, Trump then publicly questioned Putin and his intent regarding the ongoing war in Ukraine, specifically referring to Russia's deadly attack on Kyiv earlier this week.
Trump wrote: "With all of that being said, there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days.
"It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through 'Banking' or 'Secondary Sanctions?' Too many people are dying!!!"