The European Union plans to impose personal sanctions on employees of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) believed to be involved in the torture and killing of Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna.
The outlet Sistema reported Wednesday, November 12, that the list will also include security officials and judges implicated in political persecution of journalists and activists.
According to the outlet’s sources, the measures will target FSIN staff responsible for torturing Ukrainian detainees at Taganrog pretrial detention center SIZO-2, where, according to the EU, Roshchyna died in September 2024.
Rikard Jozwiak, a journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), said EU ambassadors approved the decision on November 12. The sanctions list includes 10 Russian nationals, among them four FSIN officers the EU considers responsible for Roshchyna’s death.
Earlier, the Ukrainian outlet Slidstvo.Info reported that Roshchyna may not have died in Taganrog but at Kizel’s SIZO-3 in Russia’s Perm region. According to journalists, she was transferred from Taganrog’s SIZO-2 to Kizel in September 2024 and died there on September 19 at the age of 27.
Former Ukrainian prisoners of war said detainees at the facility were beaten unconscious and women were forcibly shaved bald. Russian authorities acknowledged holding Roshchyna only in May 2024. Her body, handed over to Ukraine in February 2025, bore signs of torture, and some internal organs were missing.
