MOSCOW – Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko who came home earlier this week after two years in Russian custody said on Friday would run for president if that’s what Ukrainians desire.
Savchenko returned to a rapturous welcome after the imprisonment in Russia made her a national hero in absentia, lauded for her flinty defiance.
Savchenko was captured by rebels in June 2014 when she was serving in a volunteer Ukrainian battalion in the east and then resurfaced in Russian custody. She was convicted in March and sentenced to 22 years in prison for complicity in the deaths of two Russian journalists.
Prosecutors alleged she was acting as a spotter for mortar fire that killed the Russians. She rejected the charges and her lawyers insisted she had been captured hours before the mortar attack.
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Savhenko was released after being pardoned by President Vladimir Putin, which he said he did on humanitarian grounds at the urging of the journalists’ relatives.
At her first news conference upon her return, the 35-year old told a full house of reporters on Friday what she would like best is to return to her job as a military pilot. But she is willing to launch a political career if this could help Ukraine to deal with the separatist war in the east and snap out of a political and economic turmoil.
When asked by a reporter if she was willing to run for president, she replied:
“Ukrainians, if you want me to become president, I will become president.”
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The news conference was interjected by shouts “Glory to Ukraine!” with Savchenko, dressed in a white shirt and a tailored waistcoat, echo them with “Glory to the heroes!”
Savchenko rejected suggestions that she should ditch the party of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, which put her on top of the ballot for the 2014 parliamentary election, because of the party’s reputation of favouring Ukraine’s oligarchs. She said she would stick with that party and was anxious to come to work to the parliament next week.
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