By Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Insider

The Ukrainian Embassy to South Africa in tandem with the Swedish Embassy hosted the screening of the award-winning investigative documentary “Vika’s Last Assignment” which was directed by Ukrainian journalist Yanina Korniienko at the Bioscope in 44 Stanley, Johannesburg. 

As a way to commemorate Freedom Day in South Africa the Ukrainian and Swedish embassies wanted to use the spirit of the day to highlight the ways people are still denied their freedom. 

Currently dozens of Ukrainian journalists and thousands of civilians remain in captivity under Russian occupation. As of the end of 2025, 42 journalists remain detained according to reports by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) along with an 80% increase of journalists who have faced fatalities due to violence spread by arms groups as 67 journalists have been killed in the year 2025 solely for doing their job.

 In the case of the late Viktoria Roshchyna, who the documentary is made about, was detained by Russian forces in 2023 while she had been travelling to occupied territories in order to get on the ground coverage of the events unfolding. 

Viktoria’s aim was to also detail life under Russian occupation for a year until April 2024 when Viktoria’s father received word that his daughter had been detained by Russian forces and she was held without any form of contact or communication that could track her whereabouts or even if she is alive or not.

 In October 2024, her father eventually received word that her daughter had been killed in captivity with the Russian government refusing to hand over her body until February 2025. Upon her return Viktoria’s body had suffered multiple signs of torture with some her internal organs removed. 

Viktoria was awarded the Order of Freedom of Ukraine award posthumously. Yanina Korniieko, who is a journalist from Ukraine, who works at the non-profit investigative organisation Slidstvo.info and also serves as the author of the documentary, investigates the story of Viktoria Roshchyna.

 She came to South Africa to share the findings of her investigation which also sheds light on the plight of Ukrainian journalists due to the Russian occupation. The screening that was held at Bioscope in Milpark, included a discussion which was moderated by Micah Reddy who works at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

 “She wanted everyone to be accountable for what’s happening to people in occupation and she wanted to show the truth of what’s happening there [Ukraine]” said Yanina Korniieko during the discussion surrounding the film. 

“She was detained as a journalist, which is against all international rules. When you work in the frontline and you’re close enough to Russian positions, you are also risking being detained and the international community will not be able to help you because Russia does not negotiate.” Korniieko continued.

 “I think it’s good to illustrate what Russia is doing with International law, Russia does not respect it, so basically we had a follow up story with Viktoria after because when we published it, it was new and fresh information” she said.

 Moderator Micah Reddy, also engaged Korniieko on some of the methods that she used to uncover information for the documentary and also asked her what accountability would look like on this day.

 “You can’t get information because occupied authorities don’t provide honest and transparent information about what is happening there” she said, “No one can go there except Viktoria, which we can see what was happening right? So, especially when you investigate someone being killed on occupied territory, it’s like a huge secret” she said.

 “Russia tried to hide Viktoria as well…we found that most of the investigation was based on witnesses, who saw Viktoria in Prison [Russian prison] and collected information from her. They described to us what they saw, and that she weighed thirty kilograms which is less than a child” she continued to elaborate. 

“I understand that we all want this war to end, we want the bloodshed to end. The thing is occupation is not the end of bloodshed. It’s just blood that you don’t see anymore” said Dr. Olexander Scherba, the ambassador of Ukraine to South Africa.

 “They are treating soldiers, civilians, POWs, like pieces of meat. I’ll never forget what my former colleague, the security guard of the embassy in Vienna, who happened to be in this Russian concentration camp when he was exchanged and returned back we didn’t recognise him, we literally couldn’t believe it was him, he weighed 60 kilograms” said the Ukrainian ambassador at the screening event.

 “We can never accept that atrocities, war crimes, even crimes against humanity will be left without accountability” said the Swedish ambassador to South Africa, Anna Karin Enestrom. 

“So I think that’s a very important message from this film that she [Viktoria] should not have died for no reason” said the Swedish Ambassador.