Viktoriia Roshchyna’s death : The head of the "Russian Guantanamo" in the Crosshairs of Ukrainian Justice for War Crime
On the eve of Viktoriia Roshchyna’s funeral and three months after the publication of The Viktoriia Project, the Russian director of the Taganrog prison where the Ukrainian journalist was held is being officially investigated for war crime by the Ukrainian authorities.
By Guillaume Vénétitay
August 9, 2025
Beside a wreath of pink and purple flowers, the portrait of Viktoriia Roshchyna shows her with arms crossed and a resolute look. A photo that echoes perfectly the many tributes paid this Friday, August 8, at the Ukrainian journalist’s funeral. “She is the bravest person I have ever known,” described Sevgil Musaieva, her editor-in-chief at Ukrainska Pravda, next to her coffin.
The ceremony began under the golden dome of St. Michael’s Cathedral in downtown Kyiv, before continuing to Maidan Square, where many former colleagues bent a knee before her coffin. They then said a few words in honor of Viktoriia. “When she started something, she never gave up. And in the stories she covered, she never abandoned her characters,” explained Angelina Kariakina, who worked with Vika for the media outlet Hromadske.
Viktoriia Roshchyna’s coffin in St. Michael’s Cathedral in Kyiv (Credit: Ukrainska Pravda)
Viktoriia Roshchyna was then buried at the Baikove cemetery in southern Kyiv. The funeral brought to a close two years of uncertainty, dashed hopes, and grief for the journalist’s loved ones. Viktoriia disappeared in early August 2023 in the Zaporizhzhia region, in the Russian-occupied zone. A dogged reporter, she was “the only journalist covering the occupied Ukrainian territories. For her, it was a mission,” says Sevgil Musaieva.
This courage was recognized by President Volodymyr Zelensky, who posthumously awarded her the Order of Freedom on August 2. “She was one of those who spoke the truth about the war […] risking her life” Zelensky wrote on his X account.
Forbidden Stories and twelve media outlets continued the work of Viktoriia Roshchyna, declared dead in custody by Russian authorities in October 2024. Published on April 30, our investigation revealed the fate of the journalist, transferred between several detention centers in occupied Ukraine and Russia. Eventually repatriated, the journalist’s body bore signs of abuse. It was the mark of the mistreatment suffered by thousands of Ukrainian civilians, abducted, then held incommunicado, and systematically tortured by the Russian authorities.
Viktoriia Roshchyna’s colleagues paid tribute to her on Maidan Square before the burial (Credit: Jędrzej Nowicki)
Systematic Torture
Among the incarceration sites identified by our consortium is the Taganrog prison, on the Russian shores of the Sea of Azov. This former juvenile detention center has been transformed into a factory for crushing Ukrainian prisoners -civilians as well as soldiers- since the start of the large-scale invasion in February 2022. Torture has become so systematic that it has been nicknamed the “Russian Guantanamo”.
Viktoriia spent nearly nine months in Taganrog, between December 2023 and September 2024. Forbidden Stories and its partners have identified and published the names of several officials at the Taganrog prison. Among them, its head, Oleksandr Shtoda. Three months after the publication of our investigation, he is now in the crosshairs of Ukrainian authorities.
"Physical and psychological abuse"
On the eve of Viktoriia Roshchyna’s funeral,Ukraine’s national Police and the war crimes unit at the Prosecutor General’s Office announced that Shtoda, 45, was officially targeted in their investigation. “During the period of the suspect’s leadership in Sizo-2 in Taganrog, Rostov region, a system of repressive treatment of illegally detained Ukrainian citizens, including civilians, was organised” the police wrote in a statement.
Oleksander Shtoda is also accused of “organizing the harsh treatment” of Viktoriia Roshchyna, which “consisted of keeping her in inadequate conditions, denying her medical care, providing her with extremely poor food, and subjecting her to physical and psychological abuse,” Yuriy Belousov, head of the war crimes unit at the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office, said in a video.
Through his actions against Viktoriia, carried out by his subordinates, the director of the Taganrog detention center “committed a war crime, which took the form of ill-treatment of a civilian,” according to Belousov. The Russian prison official is facing proceedings in absentia, as notified to him by the Ukrainian authorities. He faces up to 12 years in prison, pending further investigations, which are still ongoing. Contacted by the consortium, Shtoda did not respond to our requests for comment.
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