In July 2023, Roshchyna went to
Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, possibly to report on the
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant crisis and the
destruction of the Kakhovka Dam. Her disappearance was made public on 4 October 2023 by her family, through reports in
The Daily Beast and
Ukrainska Pravda. The IWMF called her detention "unjust" and the
European Union described it as "illegal" and "arbitrary". In a letter to her family, Russian officials said that she had died on 19 September 2024. A report by the Ukrainian investigative outlet
Slidstvo stated that she had died in a detention facility the town of
Kizel in
Perm Krai, where she had been transferred eight days before in a journey that took three days. Her cause of death remains unknown. Russian news organization
Mediazona reported that she was in the process of being transferred to Moscow at the time of her death. According to
The Guardian, the most frequently used methods include electric shocks, waterboarding, mock executions, beatings with wooden and metal hammers, repeated strikes to the same body part, and various forms of degrading humiliation.
Reporters Without Borders, the IWMF, the European Union, and the
Committee to Protect Journalists Her body arrived in a batch of 757 bodies as part of exchange, marked as "unidentified male" but examination by forensic experts indicated the body was of a female, and DNA analysis confirmed Roshchyna's identity. The body had signs of post mortem dissection conducted in Russia and abrasions, bruises, a broken rib consistent with signs of torture and burns likely from electric shocks. The brain, both eyeballs, and part of the trachea were missing, which forensic experts interpreted as an attempt to obscure the cause of death, likely strangulation or suffocation. A bruise on the neck indicated a potential
hyoid bone fracture, often resulting from manual
strangulation. Labels accompanying the body also contained Russian acronym СПАС for
Total Arterial Damage of the Heart, which was likely the official cause of death assigned by Russian pathologists. The body also underwent partial
mummification due to long storage, further obscuring causes of death. A new forensic examination conducted on July 9, 2025 by the Main Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, revealed that Roshchyna had a neck injury, bone fractures, haemorrhages in the soft tissues of the temporal region, right shoulder and shins, and a contusion on the left foot. On 7 August 2025, Ukrainian prosecutors charged the administrator of Detention Center No. 2, in Rostov Oblast in absentia with the torture and death of Roshchyna. The administrator remains unidentified. On 8 August 2025, funeral ceremonies for Roshchyna were held at the
St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery and
Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv, followed by her burial in a cemetery in the city. == Publications ==