The authorities say she crossed the border from Ukraine illegally by posing as a refugee but the Ukrainian government says she was abducted by pro-Russian separatists and handed over to Russia.
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Russian investigators allege that Savchenko, who served in a volunteer battalion fighting with government troops against Russia-backed rebels, provided the coordinates for a mortar attack that killed the journalists in June 2014.
In court, Nadiya Savchenko pleaded not guilty and, according to Russian state media, said, “The whole case is a lie from the beginning to the end”.
Nadiya Savchenko faces a sentence of up to 25 years in prison, if she is found guilty.
She is also denying an unlawful crossing of the Russian border.
There was heavy security at the court, with armed riot police on guard outside the premises and snipers positioned on the roof of a nearby apartment block.
Numerous courtroom’s public seats were occupied by Cossack militiamen, but most media were barred and made to watch the trial via video-link from an adjoining room. “I’m very sorry it happened”, she told the father of late reporter Anton Voloshin.
The court held the pre-trial hearings on September 15.
Savchenko, who spent 83 days on a hunger strike to protest her detention, has become a hero figure for Ukrainians fighting the separatists. Ms. Savchenko described the case as a “piece of rubbish” from inside her courtroom cage and denounced Russia’s involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. They also claim she did not cross the border voluntarily but was kidnapped.
Last month a Russian court sentenced Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov to 20 years in jail on terror charges in a trial decried as “fatally flawed” by Amnesty worldwide .
“I didn’t see journalists”, Tass quoted Savchenko as saying.
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“The aim of our picket is to support our justice system”, said activist Alexei Mikhailovich.
