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“Numerous signs of torture and ill-treatment were found on the victim’s body, including abrasions and hemorrhages on various parts of the body, a broken rib, neck injuries, and possible electric shock marks on the feet. However, due to the condition of the body, experts have not yet been able to establish the cause of death." Yuriy Belousov, the head of the War Crimes Unit at the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office, described the results of the forensic medical examination to us.
The body was missing some organs: the eyeballs, the brain, part of the larynx, and the hyoid bone was broken, said a source close to the investigation into Viktoriia Roshchyna’s death. It was launched by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine in March 2025.
A forensic expert, who requested anonymity, suggested in a conversation with journalists that the removal of specific organs could be an attempt to conceal strangulation: “Removing the larynx during an autopsy is not standard practice. The larynx can be good evidence of strangulation. When a person is strangled, the hyoid bone is most often broken. In cases of strangulation, bleeding can be found in the whites of the eyes, and a lack of oxygen in the brain.”
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A person is abducted [in by Russia occupied territories of Ukraine] by people without insignia, they do not identify themselves, do not present any documents, and do not explain anything to relatives. The person simply disappears. No one “knows” about them in the military commandant’s offices, the prosecutor’s office, the police, or the investigative committee. Sometimes, the local police even opens a “missing person” case.
It is unknown who exactly detained Viktoriia. Sevgil Musayeva recalls that in conversations with the journalist, she mentioned that she was trying to establish the identities of FSB officers involved in the abduction and torture of Ukrainians in Enerhodar.
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“She arrived [in the detention center] already pumped full of some unknown medications,” says another former detainee who was held with Vika in the Taganrog pre-trial detention center. “At some point, she stopped eating. Her cellmates started telling the guards and the prison staff — that she’d stopped eating, that something needed to be done. They didn’t give a damn until her condition got seriously bad.”
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But even in this state [of poor health], she maintained her courage. Yevgeny Markevich, a prisoner of war who was held in a cell next to Roshchyna’s in [the detention center of] Taganrog, heard her talking to the guards.
She told the prison guards right to their faces: “You are occupiers, you came to our country, you are killing our people... I will never cooperate with you!” She was probably saved by the fact that she was a woman. If I had said something like that, they would’ve killed me on the spot.
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Ukrainian prisoners call Taganrog Detention Center No. 2 (SIZO-2), where Viktoriia ended up, hell on Earth. “Even the term ‘concentration camp’ would be too mild for SIZO-2,” said one of the prisoners.
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