Russia returned the body of captivated Ukrainian journalist without some organs

Prior to the body of the Ukrainian journalist Victoria Rochshina, who died in a Russian investigation arrest, to be returned to Ukraine, some of her internal organs were removed.

This is according to an international investigation into a number of media outlets, including the Guardian, Ukrainian Pravda (for which Roshchina works), « Important Stories », « Washington Post », « Di Zeit », « France 24 » and several other editions. The assumption is that the authorities could try to hide traces of violence and torture, says the criminalist – the Russian side sometimes returns bodies without organs to Ukraine.

Roshchina’s repatriation captured by Russian military in August 2023 (then 27 years old), investigating the FSB’s participation in the abduction of Ukrainians in the Zaporozhz region, was announced on April 24. However, the body was transmitted as early as February as part of the exchange of bodies, but as a corpse of a man.

The exact cause of Roshchina’s death, held without charge and a lawyer, has not been established, but investigators have assumptions.

Signs

Not only the lack of organs is a certificate of torture.

After the return of the body in February, a package labeled NM Spas 757 (an unidentified man, complete damage to the cardiac arteries, serial number 757) was sent to the morgue in Vinitsa (Vinnitsa). It found a frozen body of a woman in a state of extreme exhaustion, labeled « 7390 Roshchina VV ».

Before being sent to Ukraine, the eyeballs, the brain and part of its larynx were removed from the body of the rod. The sublingual bone has been broken, according to a source close to the investigation of Roshchina’s death.

Laryx can be good proof of strangulation at the same time. When a person is strangled, the sublingual bone is most often broken. When strangling, bleeding in the white of the eyes and lack of oxygen in the brain can be seen, « said the judicial expert, whom we interviewed.

It’s not the first time

A source from the Ukrainian security forces tells of « important stories » that Russia sometimes returns the bodies of Ukrainians without internal organs, explaining this with the protocols for handling bodies, but the reason may be an attempt to hide traces of torture.

Rochshina was originally kept in an unofficial torture cell in garages in Melitopol (in Russia occupied by Russia), and then, in December 2023, was moved to an investigative insulator 2 to Taganog, which became one of the most brutal places for warfarers during the war.

According to a woman held in the same investigative arrest, Rochshina was brought to Taganrog in a critical condition, refusing to eat. She has been hospitalized for a while, weakens (her weight drops to 30 kg), and according to eyewitnesses, six people with masks and machines are guarded.

In early September 2024, when she is back in the cell, she was brought out to shoot a video with testimony and sign some documents with other prisoners, ready to return to Ukraine. They no longer see her alive. She barely manages to get out of the cell after she was in a hunger strike for an unknown time.

Roshchina’s path

However, it reaches a large tour of the north to Melitopol. She left Ukraine for the last on July 25, 2023, judging by her migration card (such signs foreigners entering Russia), passing through Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, and there she crosses the Russian border by car. As a goal, he cited a private visit to Melitopol.

On August 3, her father noticed that she ceased to check the messages in chat applications. Nine days later, she was declared missing, though she was very captivated only days later, in late August. He is last at the freedom in Energodar, where he reserves a room for a few days.

In August 2024, more than a year after the disappearance, she first was given the opportunity to call her family. According to the father, he said they had informed her of a plan to return in September; Meanwhile, colleagues find ties in the Vatican, the late Pope Francis agrees to ask her name to be added to the exchange list. The editor learns that she will be released.

But she never returns: On September 13, 2024, captives returned to Ukraine, among which she is not. On October 10, the father received a written response from the Russian Ministry of Defense, stating that she had died on September 19 and her body would be returned as part of the exchange.

Ukraine’s announcement was delayed due to DNA expertise, showing 99.999% coincidence with DNA n parents, but they refused to acknowledge the death and demanded a re -investigation.

The story of her is part of an investigation into abduction and torturing civilian Ukrainians, whose number, according to authorities in Ukraine, can reach 16,000 people.