The US Embassy in Russia called for the release of Savchenko

In connection with the start of preliminary hearings on the case of the Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, whom the Russian authorities accuse of involvement in the murder in Donbass of two Russian journalists in the summer of 2014, the spokesman for the US Embassy in Moscow, William Stevens, commented on the case.

“We confirm that the representatives of the US Embassy in Moscow are part of a group of foreign diplomats who oversee the preliminary hearings on the case of Nadezhda Savchenko in the city court of Donetsk, Rostov region,” said Stevens. “We emphasize again that Savchenko should not be judged in principle: Hope is being held hostage in Russia after the Russian-backed separatists kidnapped her in Ukraine and illegally transported across the border.”

Stevens called on Russia to "stop this baseless trial and immediately release Nadezhda Savchenko and all other Ukrainian citizens held hostage." At the same time, an employee of the American embassy recalled that Russia assumed the corresponding obligations when it signed the Minsk agreements in September 2014 of the year and the Package of Measures for their implementation 12 in February of 2015.

Earlier in Kiev, lawyer Savchenko Ilya Novikov told reporters that he has a transcript of phone calls, indicating that his client was already in captivity by the pro-Russian separatists at the time when journalists were killed. According to the prosecution, Savchenko led the adjustment of artillery fire and determined the coordinates of the object where the journalists were.

Novikov expresses doubts about the justice of the Russian court. In his opinion, the process will be carried out in a hurry, and the defense will not provide enough opportunities. The lawyer suspects that the sentence has already been determined and will be as severe as possible.