Ukrainian military pilot Nadiya Savchenko arrived home to scenes of jubilation on Wednesday after her release by Russia in a prisoner swap and she promptly offered to fight again for Kiev in its conflict with pro-Russian separatists.
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On Wednesday Russia and Ukraine proceeded with the exchange of convicts between the countries, allowing Ukrainian national Nadezhda Savchenko, convicted in Russia of the murder of two Russian journalists, to return to Ukraine, RIA Novosti has reported.
Savchenko, a professional air force officer, was fighting with a Ukrainian volunteer battalion against Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine when she was captured in the summer of 2014. Russian authorities said Savchenko crossed into Russia voluntarily and illegally, disguised as a refugee.
“I want to draw the attention of our strategic partners to the blatant and cynical discrediting by Russian Federation of all the joint peace efforts”, he said in statement. While in a Russian jail, she was elected a member of the Ukrainian parliament and is widely seen in Ukraine as a symbol of resistance against Russia.
If she would stand up and challenge Poroshenko and the government, that could serve Russia’s interests by making Ukraine’s political stresses even more fraught.
Russian President Vladimir Putin pardoned her as part of a swap for two Russian servicemen jailed in Ukraine.
Details of her release remained under wraps Wednesday afternoon.
Yerofeyev and Alexandrov both told Reuters in interviews a year ago they were Russian special forces soldiers who were captured while carrying out a secret operation in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian servicewoman Nadezhda Savchenko talks to the media at Boryspil International Airport outside Kiev, May 25, 2016.
European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini tweeted Wednesday that Savchenko’s release was “long-awaited good news that the EU celebrates together with her country”. Her refusal to bend during almost two years in Russian custody made her a national hero in Ukraine.
Ms Savchenko’s lawyers have refused to say whether she also filed for a pardon. There, she was charged as an accomplice in the killing of two Russian state TV journalists: According to Russian prosecutors, she had been directing Ukrainian artillery fire in the area where they perished.
Nadiya Savchenko was met by Ukraine’s president at Kiev’s Borispol airport, where she made a passionate speech sarcastically thanking those “who had wished me evil”.
Ukrainian officials said that the two Russians were proof that Moscow was managing the conflict in southeast Ukraine and continuing to send men and materiel to destabilize the new government.
The 35-year-old has became a celebrated figure in her home country.
Interestingly, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko promised to “return” the Donbass and the Crimea, “like we have returned Nadia”. As well as spending weeks on hunger strike, Savchenko laughed and sang in court and accused her judges of being “fascists”. Fighting between the rebels and Ukraine’s forces killed thousands of people.
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“The transfer of Nadezhda Savchenko to Ukraine and Russians Alexandrov and Yerofeyev to Russia has been completed”.
