Thomson ReutersPeople take part in a rally demanding liberation of Ukrainian army pilot Nadezhda Savchenko by Russia, in central KievMOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) – Russia’s embassy in Kiev sent a note of protest to Ukraine’s foreign ministry on Sunday about attacks on the embassy’s cars, the RIA news agency quoted embassy spokesman Oleg Grishin as saying. She is now on trial in Russia, accused of acting as a spotter who called in co-ordinates for a mortar attack that killed two Russian journalists and several other civilians.
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Savchenko has fasted before to protest the accusations against her but has never before refused both food and water. The trial is expected to resume on Wednesday, with a verdict possible this week.
The action was a response to protests near the building of the Russian Embassy in Kyiv, which occurred on the night of March 6 and repeated in the afternoon on Sunday. “Nadezhda Savchenko is now in satisfactory condition”, one of her lawyers, Nikolai Polozov, said on Facebook, using the Russian version of her name. Her trial and continuing imprisonment demonstrate disregard for worldwide standards, as well as for Russia’s commitments under the Minsk agreements.
Russian authorities, however, have tried to stop all attempts to voice support for the Ukrainian pilot at home. “This is not a bluff and not a political project”, she said about the hunger strike.
Since her arrest, Savchenko won a seat as a parliamentarian in Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada and became a member of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly.
He said she was being constantly monitored and there was no need to force-feed her. Savchenko denies the charges and has said that she was kidnapped in Ukraine and transferred to Russian Federation against her will.
“Even if you consider a Ukrainian officer defending the sovereignty of her country an enemy, respect an enemy!”
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