On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin also pardoned Savchenko in an official decree.
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While Savchenko is now free, there are more than 10 other Ukrainians still in Russian jail that Kiev deems political prisoners. A Russian court sentenced her to 22 years in prison in March for complicity in the deaths of the journalists in a verdict that Poroshenko called a “kangaroo court”. Lawyer Valentin Rybin told the state news agency Tass on Wednesday, May 25, 2016, that both Russians have submitted a petition for a pardon to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
In a televised meeting, Putin thanked the journalists’ widow and sister, who sat silently, saying he hoped the release would help “alleviate the stand-off” in eastern Ukraine.
According to the official accounts of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko later published a message on Twitter and Facebook confirming that Savchenko had landed in Ukraine.
“Step back if you want me to say anything”.
“I hope.it will lead to a reduction in fighting in the well-known conflict zone and will help avoid similarly frightful and unnecessary losses”, Putin said.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday said Savchenko’s pardon and return to Ukraine is “good news that we have been waiting for and that we have been working on so long”.
Russia’s relations with its neighbour Ukraine have been toxic since an uprising in 2014 forced out the Moscow-backed Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovich and installed a pro-Western administration.
The Ukrainian government insisted from the start that Savchenko was a prisoner of war and should be immediately released.
Keeping Savchenko in custody clearly had become a liability for the Kremlin.
Savchenko maintained throughout her trial and imprisonment that she had not entered the country illegally, but had rather been captured by the same pro-Russia rebel forces she had been fighting.
The Ukrainian president subsequently offered to swap Savchenko, who has repeatedly gone on hunger strike, for the two Russian nationals.
A February 2015 agreement reached in Minsk, Belarus, has helped reduce the fighting between the separatists and Ukrainian forces, but frequent clashes have erupted and efforts to reach a political settlement have stalled.
Russia and Ukraine appeared close Wednesday to wrapping up a high-level prisoner swap with a Ukrainian helicopter pilot dubbed the country’s “Joan of Arc” traded for two Russian servicemen accused of being members of Russian military intelligence. “They stressed the importance of implementing all necessary measures to consolidate the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, starting with the withdrawal of weapons and planning the disengagement of armed forces”, the statement said. But Savchenko says the rebels who captured her spirited her across the border and handed her over.
The defiance with which the pilot carried herself throughout the detention and the nine-month trial, calling prosecutors names and singing the Ukrainian anthem, turned her in an unrivalled national hero.
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“I would like to apologize that I am still alive”.
