A memorial event of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna to take place in Kyiv

The George Gongadze Prize, PEN Ukraine and hromadske call upon all concerned to attend a memorial event of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna who died in Russian captivity. The event is to take place at 7 pm on October 11, at Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv, next to the space with flags in honor of those fallen during Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Media workers, human rights defenders, civic activists and all concerned people are being called upon to attend the memorial event of Victoria Roshchyna.

Victoria’s death was reported on October 10. Victoria’s father Volodymyr received the information about his daughter’s death from Russian officials. Later it was confirmed by the Ukrainian side as well.

Victoria went missing on August 3, 2023, while performing her job on the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. In May 2024, Russia admitted that she had been held in captivity.  The Ukrainian journalist had also been abducted by Russians in March 2022 while covering the warfare in the east and south of Ukraine, but she was released in ten days then.

Victoria Roshchyna worked with hromadske, RFERL, Ukrainska Pravda, Ukrainian Radio, UA:Pershyi and Censor.net. In 2022, she was awarded the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Courage in Journalism Award.

"Victoria could never be stopped if an idea emerged in her mind. Journalism was of the utmost importance to her. She was always where the crucial events were taking place. And she would have continued this work had not she been murdered by Russians," said Ievheniia Motorevska, ex-editor in chief of hromadske.

"Victoria was always determined to do what no one else could do. She was a journalist in the fullest sense of the word. Victoria Roshchyna was killed by Russia, a murder state and a state of murderers," Taras Ilkiv, ex-head of online platforms at RFERL and military serviceman, wrote.

According to the information from the department of treating of POWs, Russians still illegally hold about 25 Ukrainian journalists in captivity.  Apart from that, some journalists are considered missing.

According to the information from the international human rights organization Reporters Without Borders, over 100 Ukrainian and foreign journalists are considered victims of Russian crimes since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion. To know more about the journalists killed by Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, you can follow the link to the REQUIEM platform.