In July 2023, before traveling to Berdyansk, a city in Ukraine’s occupied territories, journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna wrote to her editor Sevgil Musaieva: “I have to go because I’m the only journalist who does”. It was one of the last messages Musaieva received from her. A mere days later Roschyna, 26-years-old at the time and considered by her peers to be a “lone wolf”, went missing near Melitopol, in the occupied territories. Nobody heard from her for a long time. Viktoriia was incommunicado: charged with no official crime, deprived from a lawyer and from communication with the outside world. She was a ghost prisoner. Only in Spring 2024 did Viktoriia’s relatives hear she was being held in a Russian detention centre in Melitopol, Ukraine. Viktoriia was later transferred to the Taganrog prison, in Russia, nicknamed « Russia’s Guantanamo ».
In September 2024, Viktoriia was set to be exchanged by the Russians as part of a prisoner swap. But in October 2024, her parents received notification from the Russians she had died. No cause of death was mentioned. The fate of Viktoriia Roschyna was the starting point of the Viktoriia Project.
Given the difficulty and the risks of this endeavour, the case for a collaborative journalistic effort on this story was obvious. Only a joint effort helped us pierce the heavy veil of secrecy that shrouds the actions of the Russian prison system. 12 Media organizations and close to 50 journalists worked together on this investigation coordinated by Forbidden Stories.
The project shed light on Viktoriia’s trajectory in the occupied territories. We were able to retrace Viktoriia’s journey. With our partners, we retrieved some of her sources and obtained exclusive testimonies about her last assignment. Viktoriia investigated the case of torture on prisoners in the occupied territories. She obtained information about prisons there and had identified people responsible. She wanted to tell the story of how people are tortured and finally suffer the same fate. Forbidden Stories and its partners were able to interview former inmates who crossed paths with Viktoriia. The body of Viktoriia Roshchyna was repatriated to Ukraine in February 2025; it showed marks of torture and was returned without some organs. According to Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, between 16,000 and 20,000 civilians are currently held by the Russians.
Forbidden Stories and its partners unveiled this opaque system designed to break down Ukrainian society. We investigated the “Torture chambers” set up in the occupied territories and were able to identify 29 Russian detention facilities where torture is systematic. Our investigation identified authorities at Taganrog, known as “Russia’s Guantanamo.” We interviewed former detainees on their conditions of detention and the systematic use of torture on them there. The interviews were used to create a 3D model of the Taganrog prison. Through cross-border investigative reporting, our team traced Viktoriia’s journey and uncovered a concealed network of illegal detention sites and torture chambers holding Ukrainian civilians – revealing war crimes deliberately hidden from public view and serving the public’s right to know.
