Detained Ukrainian Pilot Set To Release In Russia
KABUL: (MEP) Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, who is serving a 22-year jail sentence in Russia is set to be released under a deal made between Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko and his Russian counterpart President Vladmir Putin.
Addressing journalists on Tuesday, Mr Poroshenko said the phone call with Mr Putin on Monday had been the Ukrainian president’s idea. “Judging by the preparation work I think we have agreed on a certain algorithm that would allow Savchenko’s release,” he said, noting that she will be swapped with two Russian servicemen held in Ukraine.
Ms Savchenko was captured by pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine and transferred to Russia, where she was found guilty of being involved in killing two Russian TV reporters during the Crimean peninsula conflict in March 2014.
Poroshenko also referred to a recent conviction of two Russian soldiers in Kiev and said the court ruling “gives opportunities to launch the mechanism of a swap.”
Hours later, Mr Poroshenko’s office released photographs of the president with Ms Savchenko’s mother and sister, speaking by phone to the jailed pilot — and revealed that she had agreed to end her life-threatening hunger strike. Pavel Petrenko, Ukraine’s justice minister, said the “algorithm” allowed Kiev to apply for her release in the next two days under a specially simplified procedure.
