The inhumane torture, suffered by 27 -year -old Ukrainian journalist Victoria Rostsina arrested in the summer of 2023 near the Zaporizia Nuclear Station by the Russian authorities, brings to light a Guardian’s revealing investigation.

It was her fourth trip to reportage to the occupied territories. At this stage of war, it was the only Ukrainian journalist who was willing to risk crossing the front line to bypass the blocking of information imposed by Russia.

Roschina died after a year of booking at the age of 27.

Information on the conditions of her death is limited. Roschina was held without charges and without access to a lawyer. During her detention, her only contact with the outside world was a four -minute phone call to her parents, a whole year after her abduction.

The preliminary forensic examination indicates’numerous signs of torture“, According to the prosecutor. Signs of burns on its legs of electric shock, scratches on the hips and head, and broken side. Her hair, which she liked to have long and blond, was shaved.

Sources also revealed that the bone on her neck was broken. This is the type of damage that can be caused during strangulation. However, the exact cause of death may never be known, because when her body was returned during the exchange on February 14, some parts were missing, namely the brain, eyes and larynx.

A investigation into war crimes has begun to prosecute those responsible.

The timing of the abduction and detention of

Rossina is reportedly arrested in August 2023 near the Zaporiza nuclear power plant. It had preceded her hostage in 2022 in the city of Berdansk, where she had been forced to participate in propaganda videos before being released after international pressure on Russia for her detention.

Following her arrest in 2023, she had been transferred from the ENEPHONTAR police station to a secret torture center known as “garages” in Melitopolis.

On August 3, just days after the start of her trip, her father, Volodimir Rostn, sounded an alarm after realizing that she had stopped checking her internet messaging bills.

Towards the end of 2023, an FSB officer, who named Maxim Moroz, told Rostsina that he would be transferred to another prison and promised her better treatment there. According to witnesses, she was transported alone, with a jeep, to Taganrog. There, he was held in a detention center known as Sizo 2.

In April 2024, her family received the first official confirmation that Roschina was alive in a letter from the Russian Defense Ministry. He only said that “he has been arrested and is currently in the territory of the Russian Federation”.

A few weeks later, the Deputy Chief of the Russian Military Police wrote to her father Rostsina, saying he had died on September 19th.

When Roshchyna’s body was finally returned, it was in such a bad condition that visual recognition was difficult. However, the examiners found a label stuck on her leg with the handwritten inscription “VV Roshchyna” and the DNA test matched with that of her parents.

“Excellent journalist”

Known to her family as Vika, Rostsina grew up in the shadow of war. Her father was a veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and was 17 years old when Russia annexed Crimea. She and her sister grew up in the same city as Ukraine President Volodimir Zelenski. Kyiv Rich, where her parents still live, was 30 miles from the Russian advance to southern Ukraine in 2022.

Her colleagues said she was obsessed with work and incompatible. “She had no life beyond her work, no friends, no partner. But he did a great job. It was a mission for her, “said Sevhil Musieva, editor -in -chief of Ukrainska Pravda. “It was one of the most brave journalists I met in my career.”

In March 2022, while reporting from the occupied city of Berdansk, he faced a danger for the first time. He was arrested by a soldier and handed over to agents of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), forced to record a propaganda video and released a few days later, after a public outcry.

When she returned home, her colleagues urged her to rest and seek treatment. Her mental state was fragile and very weak, they remembered.

But Roschina continued to cross the front line. He revealed the intimidation of the workers who maintained the Zaporizia nuclear power plant and investigated the shooting of two 16 -year -old boys who had dared to oppose the Occupation.

Musayeva said that on the last journey of Rostsina, he was looking for the location of black sites, underground or industrial buildings where Russian security agents used torture systematically to interrogate citizens or force them into false bonds. Compiled a list of FSB agents.