They Tried to Erase Her ~ The Story of Viktoriia Roshchyna

[Animal Rights Zone]

🕊️ They Tried to Erase Her

The story of Viktoriia Roshchyna, and the cruelty that killed her

 

The Russian Government told Viktoriia Roshchyna’s parents she was dead. She was alive, starving herself in protest, clinging to hope. They begged her to end her hunger strike, believing she would be freed. She did. Russia lied. Instead of release, she was tortured until death. This is not a story of misfortune. It is a story of cruelty as policy.

 

A Journalist Who Refused Silence

Viktoriia Roshchyna was a 27‑year‑old Ukrainian investigative journalist. She reported from occupied territories, exposed secret detention sites, and documented the human cost of Russia’s war. In August 2023, she disappeared while investigating torture centers in Zaporizhzhia. In April 2024, Russia admitted she was detained. She managed one final call to her parents in August: she was on a hunger strike, hoping for a prisoner exchange. Russian authorities pressured her family to convince her to eat, promising release. She complied. Russia lied. Instead of freedom, she was transferred 3,000 kilometres deeper into Russia. There, she was stabbed, electrocuted, beaten, and force-fed. Witnesses say she banged on cell doors, calling her captors “executioners” and “murderers.” She died in custody on 19 September 2024.

 

The Evidence They Tried to Erase

Viktoriia's body was returned in February 2025, mis-labelled as male. It weighed just 30 kilograms. Her remains were missing internal organs, her brain, her eyeballs, and her trachea. 

“They were trying to erase the evidence. They were trying to erase her.” - Sevgil Musayeva, Viktoria's editor

This was not just torture. It was forensic erasure. A deliberate attempt to destroy proof of what Russia had done.

A Pattern of Cruelty

Viktoriia’s death echoes the fate of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died in prison in February 2024. Navalny was isolated, poisoned, and denied medical care. His death was a political assassination. Viktoria’s was a journalistic one. Both were silenced by a regime that treats truth as treason. Both were tortured not just physically, but psychologically, through manipulation, isolation, and betrayal.

 

Refusing Silence

Viktoriia's family and colleagues are fighting to ensure she is not forgotten. Her father is demanding accountability. Her editor is naming those responsible. Forbidden Stories launched The Viktoriia Project to continue her work and expose Russia’s torture network. She was posthumously awarded the Order of Freedom and named a World Press Freedom Hero. But her legacy is not just in medals, it’s in her refusal to forget.

 

A Roll Call of Respect

Viktoriia's name joins others who suffered for telling the truth: 

- Stanislav Aseyev – tortured in Donetsk, later released. 

- Dmytro Khyliuk – Reuters journalist still held in Russian custody. 

- Maks Levin – photojournalist killed near Kyiv in 2022. 

- Over 100 journalists detained, tortured, or killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion.

 

Closing

To honour Viktoriia Roshchyna is to resist the machinery that tried to erase her. Her story is singular, but her fate is shared. Russia lied to her parents, mutilated her body, and tried to bury the evidence. We must refuse that burial. Her death is not only a tragedy, it is testimony. Testimony of cruelty as policy. Testimony of a war against truth. Testimony that demands we speak.

.......