Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who died in Russian captivity, posthumously receives Courage Award in Washington

31.10.2026, 18:25 rubryka.com

The OXI Courage Award is presented by the US-based Washington OXI Day Foundation to people who have demonstrated exceptional courage in the struggle for freedom and democracy, including by risking their lives.

American journalist Simon Shuster delivered a speech about Roshchyna's courage and read a statement from her father, Volodymyr Roshchyn.

He emphasized that Roshchyna was the only journalist who dared to return to Russian-occupied territories to document what was happening there.

"She needed to see the occupation with her own eyes. She needed to tell the world about it," the American journalist said.

Shuster also said he had kept in touch with Viktoriia's father, Volodymyr Roshchyn, who had asked him to speak on his behalf. According to Shuster, the journalist's father was unable to attend the ceremony because of his health: he had recently suffered a heart attack.

"We must not allow the truth to die in captivity," Volodymyr Roshchyn said in the statement read by Simon Shuster.

The journalist's father said Viktoriia became interested in journalism while still at school and saw her profession primarily as an opportunity to help others. As a schoolgirl, she wrote an essay about what it meant to be happy.

"She wrote that, for her, happiness meant living not only for herself but also to help others. That was what made her happy," Volodymyr Roshchyn said in the statement read by Simon Shuster.

According to her father, from the beginning of her career, Viktoriia chose difficult and dangerous topics and demanded accountability from public officials.

The journalist's father thanked the award organizers for honoring her memory and separately called on the Ukrainian authorities to posthumously award his daughter the title of Hero of Ukraine.

The initiative to award the journalist the title of Hero of Ukraine has been underway for some time, with joint support from Viktoriia Roshchyna's family and representatives of the media outlets she worked with.

As Rubryka reported, in July 2026, an appeal asking that the title of Hero of Ukraine be posthumously awarded to Viktoriia Roshchyna was submitted to the Office of the President. Nearly 800 people supported the document, including human rights advocates, journalists, cultural figures, and civic activists.

In October, Ukraine's parliament again asked President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to posthumously award journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna the title of Hero of Ukraine.

Viktoriia Roshchyna traveled to temporarily Russian-occupied territory to carry out her professional duties, and contact with her was lost in August 2023. In May 2024, Russia confirmed for the first time that it was holding Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who had previously worked for hromadske, in captivity.

On October 10, Petro Yatsenko, then a representative of Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, confirmed that Roshchyna had died in Russian captivity.

The Media Initiative for Human Rights reported that Viktoriia Roshchyna had been held in at least two prisons: Penal Colony No. 77 in Berdiansk and Pre-Trial Detention Center No. 2 in Taganrog, Russia. The detention center in Taganrog is known as "one of the most brutal places where Ukrainians are held in Russia."

The body of journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who died in captivity in Russia, was returned to Ukraine in late February 2025.

On May 27, 2026, it became known that the Ukrainian journalist had been systematically tortured at Russian Pre-Trial Detention Center No. 2 in Taganrog, where Russian captors had, among other injuries, fractured the bone at the back of her skull.

Viktoriia Roshchyna worked for hromadske and later published articles in Ukrainska Pravda and Radio Liberty. She also collaborated with Ukrainian Radio, UA: First, and Censor.net.