Nadiya Savchenko, a Ukrainian pilot imprisoned since June 2014 byRussian authorities on bogus murder charges, eased her hunger strike on March10 and started to drink water, although she is still refusing to eat food.
Savchenko’s lawyer Mark Feigin said that a fake letter supposedly from President Petro Poroshenko had influenced her decision.
The author of the letter urged her to end the strike and suggested that she could join the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers after being released.
Feigin, who received the letter, said it had been likely written up by Russia’s intelligence agencies and was aimed at discrediting Savchenko. But later Russian prankster Vladimir Kuznetsov claimed responsibility for the fake.
Savchenko started her hunger strike on March 3, protesting against the postponement of her final statement and a 23-year prison sentence that the prosecutors requested for her. She eventually read the final statement on March 9.
The announcement of a verdict in the Savchenko case is scheduled for March 21. The Savchenko case has recently attracted unprecedented attention internationally.
Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s representative for foreign policy; U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton; Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and the European Parliament have urged Russian authorities to release her.
Poroshenko said on March 9 that he had received no proposals from Russia on exchanging Savchenko for Russian prisoners of war held in Ukraine. He said, however, that he was ready to make such an exchange.
Savchenko, a volunteer fighter at the Aidar Battalion, was taken captive by Kremlin-backed separatists in June 2014 and then transported to Russia, where she has been in jail since then. She faces bogus charges of killing two Russian journalists by directing artillery fire at them. She was subsequently elected in absentia to the Verkhovna Rada and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Here is why Savchenko is innocent:
1) Captured before journalists killed
Evidence unequivocally shows that Savchenko was captured by Kremlin-backed separatists before the journalists were killed. This is confirmed by recordings of phone calls made by Savchenko, the journalists and Russian-backed separatists, as well as video footage of her interrogation by separatists in Luhansk. The Kyiv Forensic Institute and the Conflict Intelligence Team, a Russian-Ukrainian open-source intelligence outfit, have thoroughly analyzed and geolocated video footage of the events filmed by separatist fighter Yegor Russky and made the same conclusion.
2) Investigators change story
Investigators have been inconsistent throughout process. They initially accused Savchenko of deliberately killing the journalists to prevent them from covering the war. But when they tried to reconstruct the events, it turned out that she could not see them the journalists from the place where she was. As a result, they had to switch to accusing her of trying to kill civilians in general.
3) Served as pilot, not spotter
Savchenko is a pilot and has never been a spotter directing artillery fire.
4) Witnesses confirm her version
The Savchenko case collapsed during the trial. Most eyewitnesses effectively confirmed her version of the events, while there is no evidence for the prosecutors’ claims.
5) Did not flee into Russia
Russian authorities claimed that Savchenko had illegally crossed the border as a refugee. The suggestion that a patriotic Ukrainian officer would flee to Russia amid a war has been ridiculed by critics. It is also at odds with vast evidence for the fact that Savchenko was captured by Russian-backed separatists.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected].
