Nadia Savchenko, who has been living without water and food since March 4, is suffering from symptoms of starvation, according to a regional Ukrainian consul general who visited the Ukrainian pilot and member of parliament in her Russian prison on March 7.
Savchenko has renewed her fast in protest against her 20-month detention in Russia on false murder charges. The Ukrainian army first lieutenant was captured in eastern Ukraine in the summer of 2014 and taken to Russia. She is charged with the murder of two Russian journalists. Prosecutors are demanding 23 years in prison for her.
After the Russian court postponed her final statement on March 3, Savchenko announced a new hunger strike and promises to starve herself to death if she is not returned to Ukraine.
She faces up to 23 years in prison on the charges.
Four days without water and food have taken their toll on Savchenko. According to Ukrainian Consul General in Rostov-on-Don Vitaliy Moskalenko, who visited Savchenko in the pre-trial detention center in Rostov Oblast on March 7, the 34-year-old woman has dry eyes, a headache, a rapid heart rate and cramps.
According to her lawyer, Nikolay Polozov, she came downstairs on her own to meet the Ukrainian consul and returned back to her cell on her own despite weakness. The lawyer also says on his Facebook page that Savchenko is willing to give her final statement to the court in the next court meeting scheduled on March 9.
“She said she does not want to wait for uncertainty,” Moscalenko said in an interview to Ukrainian 112 channel. “She will leave the prison on her conditions to show the whole world that one can make Russia do something if one is not afraid and unbreakable like she is.”
Savchenko does not allow Russian doctors to examine her and conduct any treatment. A group of three Ukrainian medics is still waiting for a permission from Russian Foreign Ministry to visit Savchenko.
Russian authorities might try to force-feed her to prevent her death.
Probable prisoner swap
Ukraine addressed European Union countries and the United States with a letter asking “to increase pressure on Russia” to free Savchenko, Poroshenko tweeted on his official account.
Meanwhile, an open letter to European leaders initiated by Ola Hnatiuk, a Ukrainian and Polish intellectual, on March 6 was signed by more than 270 prominent Western artists, politicians and intellectuals.
The petition demands Savchenko’s release saying that “our ability to save her life will test the effectiveness of international diplomacy and our commitment to European values”.
Poland-based Open Dialogue Foundation called on the international community to introduce personal sanctions against those responsible for Savchenko’s detention and prosecution in Russia. The human rights watchdog specializing on post-Soviet states said in a statement that a failure to punish those people ”would constitute a dangerous precedent in international law.”
On March 6, thousands of Ukrainians across the nation took to the streets to support Savchenko.
The Russian Embassy to Ukraine was vandalized by a group of men throwing eggs in the building of the diplomatic mission. The night before, a group of masked men attacked the embassy throwing smoke bombs and flares on its territory and damaging three cars.
In response, estimated 200 people in Moscow showered Ukraine Embassy to Russia with eggs.
Feigin assumed that Savchenko might be exchanged by the beginning of April for Russians Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Yevgeniy Yerofeev jailed in Ukraine on charges of terrorism.
#FreeSavchenko rallies are planned on March 8 in Ukraine and on March 9 worldwide.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Savchuk can be reached at [email protected]
