Kyiv [Ukraine], October 14 : Victoria Roshchyna, a Ukrainian journalist. died in Russian detention last month, announced the Ukrainian authorities this week, according to CNN.
Roshchyna went missing following a reporting trip in a Russian-occupied region in Ukraine last year in August.
It was only months later in April this year, following her detention that the Russian authorities informed the family of Roshchyna, 27 about her.
"I have official documentation from the Russian side confirming the death of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, who was illegally deprived of her liberty by Russia," Ukraine's human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, said in a statement, according to CNN.
Meanwhile, the office of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General said it was investigating her death as a war crime combined with premeditated murder.
About 25 Ukrainian journalists are reportedly being held in Russian custody, and a number of others are regarded as missing, according to a statement made by Petro Yatsenko, the spokesperson for the Ukrainian Coordination Centre for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, reported CNN.
Thousands of Ukrainians, according to the Ukrainian authorities, have been arbitrarily detained in Russia.
14,000 Ukrainian civilians are believed to be in Russian captivity, according to Lubinets, the human rights commissioner for Kyiv. A portion of these captives have been detained since the conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 and Russia annexed Crimea.
Yatsenko stated that Roshchyna passed away during a transfer from her prison facility in the southern Russian city of Taganrog to Moscow, as per the Russian authorities.
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