You're reading: Trial of Ukrainian pilot Savchenko may start in late July or early August

A preliminary hearing into the criminal case opened against Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko, who has been accused by Russia of involvement in the murder of Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine in 2014, may be held at the end of July or at the beginning of August, one of her lawyers, Ilya Novikov, has said.

“Today [on July 2] Nadia Savchenko and I signed a protocol confirming that we finished reading the files of Case No. 201/404091-15. The case will now be forwarded to the Prosecutor’s Office, and a preliminary hearing may take place in late July or in early August,” Novikov wrote on his Facebook account.

Novikov also said that Savchenko’s sister Vira had been waiting for permission to visit Nadia all day long on Thursday, but had not received it.

Savchenko has been held in Russia since July 2014 over complicity in the murder of Russian journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin in the Luhansk region.

On April 24, she was charged with complicity in the killing of two or more people, complicity in the killing of two or more people using methods posing a danger to the public based on political hatred by a group of people and illegally crossing the Russian border.

Savchenko has pleaded not guilty. She has gone on a hunger strike several times in protest against her arrest and charges. At the moment, she is preparing for an upcoming trial and is trying to stay physically fit.