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Mourners in Kyiv pay last respects to Ukrainian journalist

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Ed McCambridge
August 8, 2025

Viktoriia Roshchyna, who died in Russian captivity, has been laid to rest in Kyiv. The 27-year-old disappeared in August 2023 while reporting from inside Russian-controlled Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities said her body bore signs of torture.

Hundreds gathered in Kyiv to pay tribute to Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, renowned for her undercover reporting from Russian-occupied southern Ukraine. She exposed human rights abuses under Russian control, before going missing in the summer of 2023. Russia later confirmed her death in a pre-trial detention center.

When her body was returned, it reportedly showed signs of torture, sparking calls for international pressure on Moscow to safeguard other journalists still held in Russia. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posthumously awarded her the Order of Freedom for her bravery.

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