Prison-swap Ukrainian pilot returns to Russia for court case
She attended the appeal trial of two compatriots
MOSCOW // A Ukrainian pilot released from a Russian prison in May returned to Moscow yesterday to support two compatriots jailed in Russia.
It was the first time Nadiya Savchenko, who was elected to the Ukrainian parliament in absentia during her detention, had visited Russia since her release in a prisoner swap.
She visited Russia’s supreme court for the appeal against the sentencing of Ukrainians Stanislav Klykh and Mykola Karpyuk who had been given up to 22 years in prison for fighting in the 1990s Chechnya war. Russian state television showed Ms Savchenko walking through the corridors of the supreme court, wearing a traditional Ukrainian embroidered blouse.
“Even if I do not return from Russia alive, I am still going there to support Mykola Karpyuk, Stanislav Klykh and all our guys who are in captivity in Russia,” she said.
“I personally know how important it is when you see a Ukrainian in court, when you hear your native language, when someone shouts ‘Glory to Ukraine’,” she said. Ms Savchenko was sentenced to 22 years in prison over the 2014 killing of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine in a high-profile trial that drew international condemnation.
Th pilot – who was fighting in a pro-Kiev militia group against rebels in east Ukraine – insisted she was kidnapped by separatist fighters before the journalists were killed in June 2014 then smuggled into Russia. She was swapped in May for two Russians who fought in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian government troops are fighting pro- Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. About 10,000 people have been killed since the conflict began more than two years ago.