You're reading: Russian investigators use call details to build case against Ukrainian female pilot Savchenko

Moscow - The Russian Investigative Committee has discovered proof of former Ukrainian military officer Nadia Savchenko's complicity in killing Russian TV journalists Anton Voloshin and Igor Kornelyuk in her telephone, says Alexander Drymanov, the chief of the Investigative Committee department for crimes related to the use of prohibited means and methods of warfare.

“Our theory is that Savchenko directed mortar fire upon the
journalists and refugees who were nearby using her telephone. Her guilt
has been confirmed, in particular, by details of calls from her mobile
phone, which was seized during her detention in Russia,” Drymanov said
in an interview published in the Thursday issue of Kommersant.

Investigators also found a local map divided into squares upon which artillery and mortar fire was targeted, he said.

Drymanov also denied that Savchenko had been forcibly taken to Russia.

“Policemen detained Savchenko when she was traveling by taxi with
another man in the Voronezh region. We determined that her companion had
nothing to do with the events in southeastern Ukraine, but the purpose
of Savchenko’s visit to our country, whose border she crossed as a
refugee, has yet to be clarified,” he said.

As for the circumstances of Channel One cameraman Anatoly Klyan’s
death, Drymanov said the prime suspect is Col. Malamen, a battery
commander of the Donetsk anti-aircraft missile regiment, as it is known
that he ordered the firing at anyone approaching his garrison, including
civilians.

“And we learned about him from soldiers who served in this regiment.
The mothers who collected drafted solders from the military unit took
them to Crimea. The young people raised suspicions there, and law
enforcement bodies started an inquiry into where they had come to the
republic from and why. Then they said that they had to hide as they had
refused to obey criminal orders from the regiment’s command,” Drymanov
said.