DONETSK, Russia – A Ukrainian pilot who is charged with complicity to murder in the deaths of two Russian journalists in war-torn eastern Ukraine has arrived to court in southwestern Russia where the verdict in her trial is to continue.
Nadezhda Savchenko served in a volunteer battalion against Russia-backed rebels and was captured by separatist rebels in July 2014 in eastern Ukraine before she surfaced in Russia under disputed circumstances.
The Ukrainian government says Savchenko is a prisoner of war and should be released under current truce agreements in eastern Ukraine.
Prosecutors, who say Savchenko called in co-ordinates for the shelling that killed two journalists and several civilians in July 2014, have asked for a 23-year sentence in her case. Savchenko’s lawyers have said they think a conviction is certain.
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