Overview

• Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roschtschyna, detained in summer 2023 while investigating Russian-occupied territories, died in custody in September 2024 after enduring documented torture.
• Her partially mummified body, returned to Ukraine in February 2025, revealed missing organs and extensive injuries, complicating forensic analysis of her death.
• The UN and Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) are gathering evidence of systematic torture in Russian detention facilities, including SIZO 2 in Taganrog.
• International media collaborations under the Viktoriia-Projekt, led by Forbidden Stories, are reconstructing her final months and exposing broader abuses against thousands of Ukrainians.
• Russian authorities deny Roschtschyna’s detention in Taganrog despite eyewitness accounts, as global pressure mounts for accountability over widespread war crimes.