The lawyer for Nadia Savchenko, imprisoned by Russia on false murder charges, is calling for an international rally for her on March 9 as the trial against the Ukrainian pilot reaches its ends. A rally will take place at noon on March 6 on Kyiv's Independence Square.
Mark Feigin, the attorney for the imprisoned Savchenko, also called on people to take to the streets for the third global day to #FreeSavchenko.
Savchenko announced a complete hunger strike on March 4. She started refusing to drink water and eat food to protest against an unexpected delay in her closing remarks to March 9.
In the address, released by her attorneys, the jailed pilot says that Russia will anyway return her to Ukraine “alive or dead.”
The 34-year-old officer of Ukrainian armed forces fasted for 80 days earlier but drank water. Lawyers fear for her life with a new fast because of health problems caused by the previous hunger strike.
Savchenko’s attorneys believe judges decided to postpone her final remarks to delay her date of sentencing.
“As soon as the last address is delivered, the court is obliged to pronounce the decision,” Feigin told Gordon news agency. “Or perhaps those who are really making the decision in the Kremlin are not ready to tell the date.”
Few doubt that Savchenko’s fate will be decided by the Kremlin. But President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman declined to comment on Savchenko’s decision to fast. “This is not an issue that has anything to do with our agenda,” said Dmitry Peskov.
Savchenko is imprisoned in Russia on charges of killing two Russian journalists in Luhansk Oblast in June 2014. Prosecutors demand a 23-year prison sentence for her. Savchenko denies the accusations. She was kidnapped in Ukraine and taken to Russia.
International support for Savchenko
Activists from the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (from left to right Oleg Yeremeyenko, Yevgeniya Kopalko, Vitaliy Khekalo, Irina Khekalo) rally in front of the Germany Embassy to Ukraine in Kyiv on March 5 against holding local polls in east Ukraine before all hostages are released. Photo by Konstantin Chernichkin.
The European Union delegation to Ukraine tweeted that “the case of Savchenko has been consistently raised by the EU with the Russian authorities,” along with the cases of other Ukrainian citizens illegally imprisoned in Russia.
A small picket in front of the Germany Embassy to Ukraine in Kyiv on March 5 also tried to draw attention to the problem of Ukrainians held by Russia and eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia-backed separatists.
“We do not see the help of the international community in releasing our hostages,” Yevgeniya Kopalko, a representative of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union complained at the rally. “Especially after the German statement following the recent meeting of the Normandy four foreign ministers.”
She said diplomats never risked to go to the “occupied territory where there are armed militants and terrorists, but they are trying to persuade us that they are normal people who want to hold polls.”
Oleg Yeremeyenko, another lawyer from Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, insisted that — prior to any elections — imprisoned Ukrainians detained must be freed.
“We came out to remind the German government that before telling a sovereign state of Ukraine that we have to hold some elections in Donbas under barrels of Russian rifles and tanks, prisoners of war should be released,” Yeremeyenko told the Kyiv Post.
Following talks in Paris on March 3, Germany and France urged Ukraine and Russia make compromises in order to hold a local vote in the separatist-controlled east of the country.
“Sometimes I also have the impression that Moscow and Kyiv forgot how serious the situation is and what pressure we are under to implement Minsk faster because otherwise our efforts risk losing their legitimacy and their credibility,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
Meanwhile, cease-fire violations persist in easten Ukraine. Two soldiers were killed in a confrontation with Russian-backed separatists near Mariupol and five more troops were wounded in different sectors along the frontline, Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko reported on March 5.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Savchuk can be reached at [email protected]
