Journalist Viktoria Roshchyna died in pre-trial detention centre No. 3 in Kizel (Perm Kray, Russia), according to an investigation by Slidstvo.Info.

The Prosecutor General’s Office told the journalists that Roshchyna had died there on 19 September 2024.

The date was confirmed by Viktoria’s death certificate, which the journalists retrieved from closed Russian databases. The document was issued by the Leninsky Department of the Civil Registry Office of the Perm City Administration. It was previously reported that Roshchyna had been imprisoned in the occupied part of Ukriane and then in Taganrog; the location of her death remained unclear.

Taras Semkiv, head of Office No. 2 of the Department for Combating Crimes Committed in Armed Conflict (Prosecutor General’s Office), told the journalists that Viktoria’s death had occurred in the Kizel detention centre. State investigators are still working to identify the cause of her death, as Roshchyna’s body was brought back to Ukraine in a state that did not allow for a full autopsy.

“She was in that place for less than two weeks, and that was where her death occurred. It was in the pre-trial detention centre in the city of Kizel,” Taras Semkiv said.

Journalists spoke with Danylo, a former prisoner of war who was on a train with Roshchyna when they were being moved to Kizel.

From him, the journalists learned that on 11 September 2024, eight days before her death, Viktoria was moved from the Taganrog prison to isolation ward No. 3 in Kizel, Perm Kray. The journey lasted three days: 9 to 11 September.

“She was walking there, they were taking her to the toilet. She was very thin, her bones were already showing,” said Danylo.

In the Kizel detention centre, during the so-called “priyomka” (“reception”) on 11 September, the prisoners were mocked in every possible way.

“They beat me for an hour or two. They gave me a minute to take a breath and started beating me again. I fainted twice during the ‘priyomka.’ The women’s heads were being shaved, you could hear them crying,” said Danylo.

Prosecutor Taras Semkiv said that during the entire time of Viktoriya Roshchina’s imprisonment — since August 2023 — Russia never acknowledged that she was in any detention facility.

“It is obvious that Russia will do all in its power to hide the persons involved in her death, to hide the persons involved in her illegal imprisonment, in her mistreatment,” Semkiv added.

The death of Viktoria Roshchyna

The death of Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna in Russian prison was reported on 10 October 2024. According to the letter sent to her family by Russia’s Ministry of Defense on 10 October, Victoria died on 19 September. Viktoria Roshchyna’s name was on the swap lists.

It was reported on 24 April that the body of Viktoria Roshchyna had been brought back to Ukraine in late February this year. She was identified through DNA testing.

The autopsy failed to identify the causes of Viktoria Roshchyna’s death due to the body’s state. However, numerous signs of torture were found on Viktoria’s body.

An investigation by Project Viktoria revealed that Viktoria Roshchyna’s body was listed in the documents as an “unidentified male” when Russia handed it over to Ukraine and had a single label of unclear meaning: SPAS. The examination found that some internal organs were missing from the body. In particular, the brain, eyeballs, and part of the trachea.

Slidstvo.Info discovered that Victoria Roshchyna was brutally tortured in Russian custody: there were stab wounds on her body, the journalist weighed under 30 kilograms, and Russian prison officers hid her from checks.

In May 2025 Viktoria Roshchyna was posthumously awarded the Honour of the Profession prize by the national contest’s supervisory board in the special nomination: “For dedication to the profession in extreme hardship.”

Viktoria was buried in Kyiv on 8 August 2025.