Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna is being held in custody in Russia nine months after her disappearance, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) said, citing a letter from the Russian Defense Ministry to her father.
Roshchyna, an award-winning freelance journalist, went missing in August while attempting to enter the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine for a reporting trip.
“According to the available information, Viktoria Roshchyna, born on Oct. 6, 1996, has been detained and is currently on the territory of the Russian Federation,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a letter quoted by NUJU.
The letter, which the union said was dated April 17 and received by Volodymyr Roshchyn on April 22, did not indicate where in Russia and on what charges Roshchyna was being held. The NIJU says the International Committee of the Red Cross later told Roshchyn that his daughter was in captivity and that there was no access to her.
The union said Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office, the Investigative Committee – which probes major crimes – and the presidential human rights commissioner have not answered letters inquiring after Roshchyna’s disappearance.
Ukraine’s coordination headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war declared Roshchyna “in captivity” following the Russian Defense Ministry’s letter, according to the Ukrainian news outlet Graty.
Roshchnya was previously captured and held for 10 days in the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region port city of Berdyansk in March 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.
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