CNN
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The bodies of a young Ukrainian woman who died as a Russian prisoner after months of detention showing signs of torture have been returned to Ukraine, according to Ukraine prosecutors.
Kiev said the body of journalist Victoria Rosztina, who went missing during the reporting trip, was returned in February as part of a body exchange between Ukraine and Russia.
Yuriy Belousov, who heads the war crimes division at the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office, said the forensic examinations “have numerous signs of torture and abuse… including traces of abrasions, bleeding, fractures and electric shock on various parts of the body.”
He said experts determined that the injury was maintained while Roszcina was still alive.
Russia is known to use electric shocks as a method of torture against detained Ukrainians, and the broad nature of the practice has been documented in the past by CNN.
Belousov said repeated DNA analysis confirmed that the body belonged to Roshchyna, despite reportedly arriving from Russia, labeled “unidentified man.” He added that while physical condition made it impossible to determine the cause of Rosztina’s death, Ukraine is working with international forensic experts to get more answers.
A colleague of Roshchyna of Ukrainska Pravda said that her body was returned from Russia, where the organs were gone. Citing members of the investigators who handled her body, they said that their brain, eyes, parts of the trachea, or parts of the trachea are missing.
CNN contacted the Russian Federation’s Human Rights Committee Chairman Tatiana Moscarkova and Russian prisons for comment.
Roshchyna went missing in August 2023. Her colleagues said the reporters went to the parts of Ukrainians held by Russians, a dangerous test for Ukrainians, and reported on the lives of people living under occupation.
Journalist Evgeniya Motorevskaya, who worked with Roshchyna as a former editor at Ukrainian media outlet Hromadske, said the young reporter was determined to do the best job he could.
“To her, nothing was more important than journalism. Vika has always been the place where the most important events of the country took place. And while she has been doing this for many years, the Russians killed her,” she said in a statement released on the Formadke website that Roshchana’s death was first announced, and she mentioned her.
Roshtina’s father first issued an alarm when he stopped responding to messages during his assignment, but her family had no idea of her whereabouts until nine months later, when Moscow finally admitted that she was in custody.
Like thousands of other Ukrainian civilians, Rosztina was snatched by Ukrainian authorities, occupied by Russian authorities, and deported to Russia, where she was detained without charges or trial.
By September 2024, the healthy 27-year-old Roshtina was dead, but her family didn’t know until about a month later when she received a notification from Russia.
Petro Yatsenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Coordination Centre for the Treatment of Ukrainian POWs, said Roszcina died in October while being transported to Moscow from a detention facility in Taganrog city, southern Russia.
He said the transfer was prepared for her release as part of the prisoner exchange.
Taganlog detention facilities are known for their cruel treatment of detainees. CNN previously spoke to prisoners detained there, explaining that they were subjected to physical and psychological abuse, inadequate food and denied access to basic health care.
Reporters for Ukrainska Pravda have partnered with more than a dozen international media journalists after her death was announced, and tried to piece together what happened to her during the final months of her life.
They interviewed dozens of prisoners and prison guardians and human rights advocates. They were able to trace her movements and explain the cruelty of her detention.
