01/10/2026 Culture, Science, Education and Media
The courage and dedication of war-reporters was honoured today at a PACE hearing to mark the second ever “Victory for Viktoria” Day, an annual commemoration of journalists who risk their lives to tell the truth. The day was created by the Assembly in 2025 and named after pioneering Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, who was abducted and killed while reporting on Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Opening the hearing, PACE President Petra Bayr said this was a day “we hoped we would never need”. Viktoria had paid with her life for telling the truth, she recalled. Drawing on her own experience as a journalist, the President noted that those who want to control the story often try to silence the story-teller. But she added: “You can kill a journalist, but you cannot kill the truth.” Remembering and protecting journalists doing this work, she concluded, “is how we give Viktoria her victory”.
Yevheniia Kravchuk (Ukraine, ALDE), who prepared a report on this topic, also spoke about Viktoria’s story and the experiences of other Ukrainian journalists held in Russia. Journalists continued to work in these dangerous areas, she pointed out, despite dire conditions. She cited the Ukrainian journalist Olena Gnitetska, who said of her experience: “you run fast, you listen carefully for drones, and you film only on a phone, because carrying a camera or wearing a press insignia makes you a target”.
Ukrainian journalist, author and documentary-maker Nataliya Gumenyuk, who knew and worked with Viktoria, remembered her fearlessness: “Viktoria was the kind of person who wouldn’t have had a party for her birthday – she always wanted to work.” Ms Gumenyuk, who founded and leads the Public Interest Journalism Lab in Ukraine, pointed out that there are still 30 journalists still in Russian captivity today: “What can we do now to save them? How can we make sure we do not have to commemorate them next year?”
Le Monde journalist and author Ariane Chemin – who reported from Ukraine – also talked about her experiences. She explained how war had changed between 2022 and 2026, in particular because of killer drones: “When a drone’s range spans several tens of kilometres, there is no longer a front line or a rear. Since the end of August, Kyiv has been a city on the front line. And the line between war correspondents and other journalists is also blurring.”
