The international Viktoriia Project, dedicated to Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who died in Russian captivity, won the Online Journalism Award in the “Excellence in Collaboration and Partnerships” category.
The investigation was initiated by Forbidden Stories and involved 13 media outlets, including Ukrainian ones. The journalists reconstructed Roshchyna’s route through Russian prisons, documented evidence of torture, and revealed details about the detention of other Ukrainian civilians held captive by Russia, whose cases Roshchyna had been investigating before her disappearance.
Viktoriia Roshchyna disappeared in Russian-occupied territory in August 2023 while working on a report. In the autumn of 2024, it became known that she had died in Russian detention shortly before a planned prisoner exchange. The journalist’s body was returned to Ukraine only in February 2025, bearing signs of extensive torture, including fractures and evidence of electric shocks.
