Ukrainians Mourn the Loss of a Young Journalist and Her Stories
Viktoria Roshchyna reported from places most other Ukrainian journalists would not go.She was one of the last to report openly from the territory in Ukraine forcibly taken by Russian troops.
And then she went further and entered Russia.Ms.Roshchyna, known as Vika, was arrested her father said, and died in September, more than a year later.
The circumstances of her death remain unclear, as is what she intended to do in Russia.Some have suggested she planned to travel through Russia into occupied Ukraine.
She was 25.Ukrainians have widely mourned Ms.Roshchyna’s death, for the tragic loss of a young life, but also because of the stories she wrote from parts of the country where many had been forced to flee, losing everything.
Her stories had been an important lifeline for them.Ms.Roshchyna was known as a brave, stubborn and driven journalist.
Soon after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, she joined a humanitarian convoy and tried to cross into the besieged southeastern port city of Mariupol, as almost everyone else was trying to leave.Russian forces captured her in March.
They released her a week later, after beating her, she said.Instead of fleeing, Ms.Roshchyna bought a new camera in Zaporizhzhya, a city in southern Ukraine, and hopped on a bus back into Russian-occupied territory.
She appeared not to tell anyone where she was going, not even her bosses at Hromadske, the online news outlet where she worked.When Russia invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014, many Ukrainian journalists unexpectedly became combat reporters.Back then, I, too, traveled to the frontline many times.
But my biggest fear was being captured by Russian troops and I never went to what become known as the “occupied territories.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe...