Russian court says Ukraine pilot guilty over journalist murders

A Russian judge today said that Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko was complicit in the killing of two Russian journalists, an assertion certain to inflame already dire relations between Moscow and Kiev. Savchenko, 34, was captured by pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine in June 2014 during the separatist conflict there and handed over to Russia where she was charged with directing mortar fire which killed two Russian journalists. She has denied wrongdoing. Russian news agencies reported that the judge’s words amounted to a formal guilty verdict. However, the judge was still reading his conclusions and the final verdict had not yet been handed down.

She deliberately inflicted death on two persons, acting by prior conspiracy, and on the motives of hatred and enmity.

The judge, Leonid Stepanenko to the courtroom

Savchenko is regarded as a national hero and symbol of anti-Kremlin defiance by many in her native Ukraine. In Russia, state TV has depicted her as a dangerous Ukrainian nationalist with the blood of civilians on her hands. Prosecutors have asked the court to sentence her to 23 years in prison. Savchenko hopes she will be returned to Ukraine before too long as part of an exchange deal between Moscow and Kiev and has been on hunger strike to try to speed up the trial and its outcome.

It will be guilty of course, you need not doubt that, there is no doubt and there will be a long sentence.

Savchenko’s lawyer Mark Feigin

Ukrainian pilot