You're reading: Ukraine again slams Russia over pilot’s prosecution

Kyiv has again protested to criminal charges brought in Russia against Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko and demanded her immediate release and repatriation.

“Despite repeated letters by Ukrainian [authorities] saying that
Nadia Savchenko was forcibly evacuated onto the territory of the Russian
Federation, today the Russian Investigative Committee brought an
additional charge against her – a charge of illegal crossing of the
border of the Russian Federation,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said
in a statement.

“These actions reflect an attempt by the Russian side to provide any
justification whatsoever for the detention of the Ukrainian national and
her prosecution on the territory of the Russian Federation. All
evidence of Nadia Savchenko’s non-complicity in actions attributed to
her that has been provided by her defense is ignored,” the statement
said.

“The Russian Federation continues to disregard universal standards of
international humanitarian law and pays no attention to numerous
demands from the international community for the release of Nadia
Savchenko,” it said.

The ministry “calls upon the Russian side to take account of the
humanitarian aspect of Nadia Savchenko’s further detention and demands
the unconditional fulfillment by the Russian Federation of its
international commitments, including [its commitments under] the Minsk
agreements, the immediate release of the detained Ukrainian national,
and her return to her Homeland.”

Earlier on April 24, Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir
Markin had told Interfax that Savchenko had been definitively charged
with complicity in the murder of Russian journalists.