““Roshchyna “arrived” normally. According to the Russians, she behaved badly, was noisy” – a former prisoner”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
Journalists do not mention the real name of their interlocutor, representing him under the pseudonym “Razor”. He was returned to Ukraine in October 2025. According to “Razor”, for some time he was kept in a cell next to Roschyna and they “could even touch each other before going to bed and wish each other good night.”
According to the former prisoner, the journalist constantly demanded that a psychologist be brought to her and the books replaced, “begged operatives.” “Roshchyna “arrived” normally. According to the Russians, she behaved badly, was noisy. They needed everyone to sit quietly and not open their mouths,” Brytva said.
In the Taganrog pre-trial detention center, Roschyna was repeatedly sent to solitary confinement for “wrong behavior”, claims the former prisoner. “There are systematic beatings in the cell. There is a small cell, in the morning you take out the mattress, the bed is made and that’s it. You sometimes walk, sometimes you sit on the floor,” the interlocutor of the journalists told.
During one of the morning checks, “Razor” claims, Roschyna again demanded that a psychologist be brought to her. The supervisors were outraged by such a request.
“The girl starts having hysterics. And they (supervisors, ed.) yell at her: “Go to the cell! Don’t get nervous!” And she enters the camera. We hear screams. And she, I understand, tore off the plastic ceiling and cut her veins. But not much, it only spoiled the skin. Medics came running,” Brytva told.
27-year-old Viktoriya Roschyna, who collaborated with Radio Liberty, was captured in August 2023 in Energodar, Zaporizhzhia region, which was occupied by Russian troops at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. She went to Energodar as a freelance writer for “Ukrainian Pravda” to prepare a report.
For several months Roschyna was held in police stations and pre-trial detention centers in various cities both in the occupied territory and in Russia. Eyewitnesses said that the journalist was tortured, she lost up to 30 kilograms and could not walk without help.
It was supposed that in September 2024, the journalist would be included in the exchange of prisoners of war, but as a result, the Russian authorities announced that Roschyna had died. The journalist’s body with traces of torture was handed over to Ukraine in February 2025.
According to Slidstvo.Info, before her death, Roschyna was held in pre-trial detention center No. 3 in the city of Kisel, Perm Region. Earlier, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine reported that the journalist was being held in the Taganrog pre-trial detention center in the Rostov region. In Ukraine, the head of the detention center, Vyacheslav Perevozkin, was informed of the suspicion. He faces life imprisonment.