You're reading: RFE/RL: Savchenko draws fire for Crimea comments

RFE/RL: Savchenko draws fire for Crimea comments

Published Jan. 18, 2017 at 2:25 pm

Ukrainian pilot and deputy of the country's parliament Nadiya Savchenko looks on as she walks inside Russia's Supreme Court building in Moscow on October 26, 2016 after attending an appeal against Moscow's sentencing of Ukrainians Stanislav Klykh and Mykola Karpyuk, who were slapped with up to 22 years in prison for fighting in the 1990s Chechnya war.

Photo by AFP

Ukrainian lawmaker Nadiya Savchenko has caused controversy by suggesting that Kyiv must accept Moscow’s grip on Crimea for the time being if it wants to regain control over eastern territory held by Russia-backed separatists.

Speaking on 112 Ukraine TV on Jan. 17, Savchenko said that “the only peaceful way” to resolve the status of the eastern Donbas region in Kyiv’s favor is to put the issue of Crimea, which was seized by Russia in March 2014, “on the back burner.”