A female Ukrainian pilot has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for the murder of two Russian journalists in what Western sources are calling a propaganda exercise.
Nadezhda Savchenko was accused of directing artillery fire that killed Anton Voloshin and Igor Kornelyuk, members of a Russian TV crew in July 2014. She was found guilty despite cellphone records that prove that she was captured by separatist militia fighters at least an hour before these journalists were killed, according to her defence team.
Before Ukraine’s war with Russia, Savchenko was well-known in Ukraine as a pioneering female combat pilot. She was fighting as a volunteer against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine when she was captured and put on trial in Russia.
Savchenko, who has been nicknamed Ukraine’s Joan of Arc by international media, burst into a patriotic Ukrainian song as the judge read her guilty verdict. Video from the court shows her lawyers reading and appearing to disregard the judge, although one cracks a smile as she starts to defiantly sing.
Before she was led from the court, Savchenko leapt to her feet saying: “if you want to know what I think of this court it’s this . . . “ before giving the judge the finger.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a statement that “Ukraine would not recognise the ‘so-called’ verdict,” and he was prepared to trade two detained Russian soldiers for Savchenko, according to aBBC report.
State Department spokesperson John Kirby said in a statement that Savchenko’s conviction “shows a blatant disregard for the principles of justice.” He adds:
“For nearly two years, Russia has unjustly detained Savchenko on charges that have no basis in fact and has denied her the basic protections of the rule of law. She has reportedly endured interrogation, solitary confinement, and forced ‘psychiatric evaluation’.”
And the BBC reports that Savchenko has become “a national hero” — even being elected to Ukraine’s parliament while imprisoned in Russia.
