“Journalists should not be targets of war.” On Twitter, Friday March 18, the organization Reporters without Borders said to itself “deeply concerned” by the disappearance in Ukraine of the journalist Victoria Roshchina, “as she covered the conflict”. “We call for the urgent release of information about his whereabouts and conditions and his immediate release,” insisted the NGO on the social network.
RSF shares serious concern about the disappearance of journalist Viktoria Roshchina while reporting in the war in #Ukraine. We call for the urgent disclosure of information on her location and conditions and for her immediate release. Journalists must not be targets of war! https://t.co/iy2Euj5CD4
— RSF (@RSF_inter) March 18, 2022
Victoria Roshchina works for the Ukrainian media Hromadske, an online television channel. On Twitter, the editorial staff claims to have lost contact with her on March 12, and that the journalist, who covered eastern and southern Ukraine, has since been detained by Russian forces. “On March 16, we learned that the day before Viktoria Roshchina was detained by the FSB”, Russian intelligence service, says the Ukrainian media.
As we learned from witnesses, at that time the journalist was in the temporarily occupied Berdyansk. On March 16, we learned that the day before (probably March 15), Victoria Roshchyna was detained by the Russian FSB. Currently, we do not know where she is 2/3
— Hromadske Int. (@Hromadske) March 18, 2022
On his site (link in English)the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) also calls for “immediate release” of the journalist. “According to Hromadske, Victoria Roshchina had planned to go to Mariupol last week,” develops the organization. It specifies that on March 11, the journalist’s vehicle was targeted by gunfire as it drove past Russian tanks near Zaporizhia. The reporter and the person driving “managed to get out of the vehicle marked ‘press’ and take refuge behind nearby abandoned houses. Roschina said that while they were hiding, Russian soldiers stole his laptop, camera and other personal effects in the car”, details the EFJ.
The European Federation of Journalists adds that another Ukrainian journalist, Oleg Baturin, has also been missing since 12 March.