cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/4759756
Journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna died in Russian captivity on 19 September 2024. It was previously known that the woman was being illegally held in a pre-trial detention centre in Taganrog. However, journalists from Slidstvo.Info learned that eight days before her death, Roshchyna was transferred to detention centre No. 3 in the city of Kizel in the Perm region. It was in this place of captivity that the journalist died — journalists learned from closed Russian bases that her death certificate was issued in Perm.
Slidstvo.Info spoke to a soldier who had been released from captivity and who had seen Viktoriia Roshchyna in Kizel and travelled there with her on the same train. In addition, journalists identified the heads of the detention centre who may have been involved in Roshchyna’s death.
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For over a year, her family and friends waited for Viktoriia to be exchanged and return home. However, in October 2024, her father received a letter from the Russians stating that Viktoriia had died in captivity. All this time, she had been held in various prisons: in the occupied territories and in Taganrog pre-trial detention Centre No. 2. It was in Taganrog that Viktoriia first crossed paths with soldier Danylo, with whom journalists from Slidstvo.Info managed to speak to. He was returned to Ukraine during an exchange in April 2025.
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“They beat me constantly for an hour or two. They gave me a minute to catch my breath and then started beating me again. I lost consciousness twice during the ‘reception’. The women had their heads shaved, and I could hear them crying,” says Danylo.
“They beat everyone very badly, wherever they could. They could hit you and just knock out an organ,” said another soldier released from captivity, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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“You stand there in one place. All day long, you have your imaginary square where you stand. That is, you are not allowed to move around the cell, you cannot sit down. Talking to each other is also prohibited, because the camera sees everything. They can also open the windows. And, excuse me, Kizel, it’s very cold there. I think there’s even snow there in the summer. I remember once it was about 30 degrees below zero,” says 22-year-old Danylo Murashkin, who was returned to Ukraine in July 2025 after 3.5 years in captivity.
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The fact that Viktoriia died on 19 September was confirmed to Slidstvo.Info by the Office of the Prosecutor General. It happened right in the detention centre.
‘She had been there for less than two weeks, and that is where she died. It was in the pre-trial detention centre in Kizel. Viktoriia’s body was transferred to Ukraine in such a condition that it was not possible to conduct a full forensic examination, the results of which would have provided us with information about the cause of Viktoriia’s death,’ said Taras Semkiv, head of the Second Directorate for Procedural Guidance and Public Prosecution of the Department for Combating Crimes Committed in Conditions of Armed Conflict of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
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Journalists managed to obtain a list of employees of pre-trial detention centre No. 3 in Kizel from their sources. Slidstvo.Info verified it and found that in September 2024, 39-year-old Vitaly Spirin was acting as the head of the facility. Spirin’s social media accounts reveal that he is married and has two children. In 2023, Spirin earned 1 million 49 thousand Russian rubles at the detention centre. This is approximately 450 thousand hryvnias.
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“It is obvious that in a place of confinement such as Kizel, such actions cannot take place without the knowledge of the head of the facility. These are systematic manifestations of cruel treatment of Ukrainians in places of confinement. They definitely take place with the connivance and instructions of the management of the detention centre,” says Taras Semkiv, head of the Office of the Prosecutor General.
The deceased Viktoriia Roshchyna may also have been in contact with the head of the security department, Yevgeniy Trofimov, the deputy head of personnel and educational work, Konstantin Chekalov, and the deputy head of logistics, Alexei Dorodnov.
All employees of the Kizel detention centre, except for Dorodnov, continue to work there.