Savchenko's last word, a gesture in court and global support. VIDEO

Photo: Facebook Nadiya Savchenko

EU leaders got international petition on the release of Ukrainian pilots Nadezhda Savchenko, which, as stated Air force A spokesman for the EU office in Ukraine, has already signed up more than 36 thousand people.

Among them are more than 400 politicians, public figures and Nobel laureates, such as former Prime Minister of Belgium Guy Verhofstadt, ex-Prime Minister of Poland and former President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek, former German Foreign Minister Markus Meckel, Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, Russian satirist Victor Shenderovich and actress Liya Akhedzhakova.

The signatories call on European leaders to “take extraordinary measures to ensure the immediate and unconditional release” of Nadezhda Savchenko, who is on trial in Russia for her involvement in the murder of two journalists near Lugansk in 2014.

On Wednesday it became known that the verdict of Savchenko in the court of the city of Donetsk of the Rostov region will be announced 21 March. The state prosecution demands that the defendant be sentenced to 23 years in prison.

The Ukrainian serviceman, who spoke at the trial on March 9 with the last word, at the end of her speech showed the Russian court an offensive gesture - an arm bent at the elbow with a middle finger.

“That moment when millions of citizens of the Russian Federation stand in solidarity with a citizen of Ukraine in her relation to the Russian judicial system,” he wrote in Twitter one of the leaders of the Russian opposition, Alexei Navalny.

Earlier it became known that the sentencing of Nadezhda Savchenko was postponed to March 21, but she ultimately told the court that she was not going to wait more than a week and would continue a dry hunger strike.

“The court stole a week of my life, and now you only have a week to make a decision. And perhaps I will live to see this decision,” Savchenko quotes. Radio Liberty. “You can do it nicely and admit your mistake, but, of course, you won’t admit your guilt.” You can read the verdict right now, or tomorrow, or in a week at most. If you decide to announce that the verdict will be in two weeks, or at the end of April, or in six months... If you want to show your strength, show it. But remember that we are playing for this life, the stakes are high, and in this case I have nothing to lose. I will continue my dry hunger strike if the verdict is pronounced later than in a week. I said everything, I won’t wait for the verdict.”

Savchenko, how reports the BBC, delivered her speech in Ukrainian, and after the very first sentence, the presiding judge Leonid Stepanenko reprimanded the translator, asking him not to translate “obscene and offensive expressions.”

In her last word in the framework of the process, the serviceman, people's deputy and the delegate of Ukraine to PACE stated that she did not admit her guilt, sentence, or the Russian court as a whole.

In the case of a conviction, according to Savchenko, there will be no appeal. Having completed her speech, Savchenko began to sing the Ukrainian anthem, which was picked up by her supporters in the hall.

By Savchenko, as before, do not allow Ukrainian doctors. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday in a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Pavel Klimkin, this was done because of the defendant’s behavior.

“Savchenko’s defiant behavior during the court hearing that took place on the same day and her insulting statements addressed to the court changed the situation, making it impossible to carry out such a visit,” he told the Ukrainian minister.

According to Lavrov, before this incident, the Russian side was ready, as an exception to the rule, to allow Ukrainian doctors to declare a dry hunger strike, Savchenko, but now such a visit has become impossible. In addition, until the sentence is passed, Savchenko will not let visitors in at all.

Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday protested the "deliberate creation of circumstances posing a mortal threat to the life" of Nadezhda Savchenko, and a rally in support of Savchenko was held outside the Russian Embassy in Ukraine.

Boryspil International Airport in Kyiv on Wednesday joined the global campaign in support of Nadezhda Savchenko #FreeSavchenko, placing portraits of the serviceman on all monitors.

Photo: Boryspil Airport

The US State Department on Monday called for the immediate return of Savchenko to Ukraine. AT statement on behalf of Secretary of State John Kerry it is said that the accusations against the Ukrainian woman have no legal force.

In response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said, that “the publication of calls for the release of the defendant a day before the trial is direct pressure on the court.”

As previously reported ForumDaily, actions in support of Savchenko, demanding her release, were held in various US cities.

Read also on ForumDaily:

In New York and Chicago, the Ukrainians came to the rally in support of Savchenko. A photo

SBU: in Russia they offered to exchange Savchenko for a “path to the Crimea”

Posted video of the arrest of Savchenko militants

The trial of Nadezhda Savchenko began in Russia

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