International
Ukrainian journalist, 27, who chronicled Russian occupation dies in prison
Ukrainian journalist, 27, who chronicled Russian occupation dies in prison
Viktoriia Roshchyna disappeared in August 2023 in a part of Ukraine now occupied by Russian forces.
It took nine months for Russian authorities to confirmed the journalist had been detained. They gave no reason.
This week, her father got a terse letter from the defence ministry in Moscow informing him that Victoria was dead, aged 27.
The document said the journalist’s body would be returned in one of the swaps organised by Russia and Ukraine for soldiers killed on the battlefield. The death date was given as 19 September.
Again, there was no explanation.
Vigil for Viktoriia
This weekend, friends gathered to remember Viktoriia on the Maidan in central Kyiv. They shuffled into position on the steps holding her photograph, young face smiling out at the small crowd.
“She had huge courage,” one woman began the tributes.
“We will miss her enormously,” said another, turning away as her eyes filled with tears.
Viktoriia’s stories were snapshots of life that Ukrainians were not getting from anywhere else.
Reporting from occupied areas of Ukraine was extremely dangerous, but her colleagues remember how she was desperate to go there, even after she was detained and held in custody the first time, for ten days.
“Her parents used to call and tell us to stop deploying her, but we never did deploy her!” one of her former bosses recalled.
“All her editors tried to stop her. But it was impossible.”
The young reporter eventually went freelance in order to deploy herself and when she got back newspapers would buy her reports.
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Most strikingly, she never used a pseudonym even though she wrote openly of “occupied” territory and referred to those who collaborated with the Russians as “traitors”.
“She wanted to provide information about how those cities live under siege by the Russian army,” Sevgil Musaieva, editor-in-chief at Ukrayinska Pravda, told the BBC.
“She was absolutely amazing.”
Detention
Viktoriia’s father has previously described how she set out via Poland and Russia last July, heading for occupied Ukraine.
It was a week before she called to say she’d been interrogated at the border for several days.
All we know for sure after that, is that by May she was in Detention Centre No. 2 in Taganrog, southern Russia – a facility so notorious for the brutal treatment of many Ukrainians that some dub it the “Russian Guantanamo”.
According to the Media Initiative for Human Rights, another Ukrainian citizen who was released from Taganrog last month has told Viktoriia’s family she saw the journalist on 8 or 9 September.
Then, there was cause for hope.
“I was 100% sure she’d be back on 13 September this year. My sources gave me 100% guarantees,” Musaieva, from Ukrayinska Pravda, says.
She had been told Viktoriia would be included in one of the periodic prisoner-of-war swaps that Ukraine and Russia carry out, planned for the middle of last month.
“So what happened with her in prison? Why didn’t she come home?”
Viktoriia was moved, with another Ukrainian woman, but neither were included in the prisoner exchange.
“That means she was taken somewhere else,” says Media Initiative director Tetyana Katrychenko. “They say to Lefortovo. Why there? We don’t know.”
She says it’s not normal practice ahead of a swap.
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Lefortovo prison in Moscow is run by the FSB security service and used for those accused of espionage and serious crimes against the state.
“Maybe they took her there to start some kind of court proceeding or investigation. That’s happened to other civilians taken from Kherson and Melitopol,” Tetyana says.
The BBC understands that Viktoriia’s father had spoken to her in prison on 30 August.
At some point, she had called a hunger strike, but that day her father urged her to start eating again and she agreed.
“That needs investigating. It also means we’d be blaming her, partially, and not the Russian Federation, as we should,” Tetyana cautions.
Ukraine’s intelligence service has confirmed Viktoriia’s death and the General Prosecutor’s office has changed its criminal case from illegal detention to murder.
In Russia, Viktoriia was never charged with any crime and the circumstances of her detention are not known.
“A civilian journalist … captured by Russia. Then Russia sends a letter that she died?” Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Yurchyshyn told the BBC in Kyiv.
“It’s killing. Just the killing of hostages. I don’t know other word.”
Russia hasn’t commented.
Civilian hostages
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, huge numbers of civilians have been taken from areas of Ukraine that Moscow has overrun and now controls.
Like Viktoriia’s family, desperate relatives are left with little or no information on their whereabouts or wellbeing, and no idea whether they’ll ever get home.
So far, the Media Initiative has collated a list of 1,886 names.
“There’s all sorts of people, including ex-soldiers and police officers and local officials like mayors,” Tetyana says.
“And of course there may be many more we don’t know about.”
Neither lawyers nor the Red Cross get access and even if someone’s location can be confirmed, getting them back home is almost impossible: civilians are rarely swapped.
Viktoriia’s friends and colleagues say they won’t rest until they’ve investigated what happened.
“Her life was her work,” Angelina Karyakina, a former editor at Hromadske says. “It’s a rare type of people who are so determined.”
“I’m pretty sure the way she would want us to remember her is not to stand here and cry, but to remember her dignity,” she says.
“And I think what’s important for us journalists, is to find out what she was working on – and to finish her story.”
Ukrainian journalist, 27, who chronicled Russian occupation dies in prison
BBC
International
American man arrested for beating tourist to death at Ireland hotel
American man arrested for beating tourist to death at Ireland hotel
A 30 year old American man whose name was not given by security officials, has been arrested for beating up a 60 year old tourist to death at the Ballyfin Demesne hotel in Laois, Ireland.
The Irish police force commonly known as ‘Garda Síochána’ announced that the incident occurred in the late hours of Tuesday, November 12.
Ballyfin Demesne hotel, is a popular luxury five-star hotel located in Laois, Ireland and special guests such as Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, George Clooney e.t.c had made use of the hotel in times past.
The victim was discovered unconscious in the late hours of Tuesday, November 12 and was then rushed to the hospital were he died due to severe beating inflicted on him by the culprit.
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Independent local councilor James Kelly stated that nearby communities were ‘stunned’ upon learning about the incident at the renowned hotel.
He said, “There would be a lot of staff from the area and they’re totally shocked by what has happened here.
“It’s something we didn’t think we’d be waking up to this morning.”
The police also noted that a senior officer has been assigned to lead the investigation and an incident room has been set up at Portlaoise Garda Station, Ireland.
Furthermore, a family liaison officer will be designated to assist the family of the deceased.
International
FBI raids home of crypto platform Polymarket CEO, after accurate prediction of Trump win
FBI raids home of crypto platform Polymarket CEO, after accurate prediction of Trump win
The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday carried out a raid at the home of Shayne Coplan, CEO of cryptocurrency prediction outlet Polymarket.
Authorities seized Mr Coplan’s phone during the raid, according to New York Post which first reported the incident.
Mr Coplan, 26, has been running the famous platform for bets throughout the 2024 presidential election in the United States.
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It wasn’t immediately clear why the search was conducted, but Polymarket promptly said it might be due to its activities during the election. Users on the platform had correctly predicted Donald Trump was going to defeat Kamala Harris. The company paid out a substantial amount to winners following the election.
“This is obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election,” a spokesperson for Polymarket said in a statement from its headquarters in New York. “Polymarket is a fully transparent prediction market that helps everyday people better understand the events that matter most to them, including elections.”
It was unclear whether or not the FBI would be filing charges after the raid.
FBI raids home of crypto platform Polymarket CEO, after accurate prediction of Trump win
International
Two dead, buildings destroyed in American factory explosion
Two dead, buildings destroyed in American factory explosion
Two employees of Givaudan sense colour, a factory known for making colourings for beverages, located in Louisville, Kentucky, United States (US) were killed in an explosion that took place at the company’s facility.
The factory reported that the incident which took place on Tuesday, November 12 in the afternoon have also destroyed buildings around the company.
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Louisville Mayor, Craig Greenberg stated that firefighters managed to rescue and evacuate numerous individuals from the site, including some who sustained life-threatening injuries.
He also confirmed that all employees present at the plant during the explosion have been accounted for.
Earlier reports indicated that at least 11 workers were hospitalized.
The cause of the explosion is still under investigation.
Two dead, buildings destroyed in American factory explosion
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