The female Ukrainian pilot 'abducted' by Russia, her SIXTY SIX DAY hunger strike... and why her fate could threaten fragile truce that's hanging by a thread
Nadia Savchenko has been charged over the 'murder' of two Moscow journalists after being arrested by Russian authorities in June.
The 33-year-old military pilot, who has become a symbol of resistance at home, is said to have lost more than three stone since going on hunger strike 66 days ago in protest at her detention.
Her supporters claim she was abducted in eastern Ukraine and smuggled across the border by pro-Moscow rebels, while Russia insists she entered the country voluntarily.
Her case has become a major sticking point in a shaky truce that appeared to already be at risk on just its second day, with both Kiev pro-Russian separatists accusing each other of continuing attacks and holding up an agreed pull-back of heavy weapons.
Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko emerged from last week's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin claiming to have secured her release as part of a deal to release hostages.
Russian officials, however, said Savchenko was not a 'hostage' and her case would have to be decided in court.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that while the peace deal signed in Minsk on Thursday called for both sides to exchange all hostages and those 'unlawfully detained', Savchenko did not qualify as such.
'The president repeated his position, that has been voiced many times before, that in this case, she is under investigation and the degree of her guilt or innocence will be established by a court,' Peskov was quoted as saying by the state RIA Novosti news agency.
The Investigative Committee, which reports directly to Putin, also said on Friday that 'rumours spread about some upcoming release of Nadezhda Savchenko are without grounds.'
The committee said there was no reason to lift Savchenko's detention since it had 'indisputable proof' of her guilt, adding that 'it is for a court... to decide the degree of her guilt and punishment.'
It added: 'Unlike some politicians and so-called attorneys, we are guided by facts and not emotions or political tastes.'Poroshenko had said Thursday that he pressed Putin in Minsk on Savchenko's case and was told she would be freed 'shortly' after medical tests and a preliminary investigation.
Savchenko, 33, is charged with involvement in the deaths of two Russian reporters Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin, from state television channel Rossiya.
The pair were killed on June 18 after being hit with shrapnel during an attack by Ukrainian forces near the city of Lugansk. She denies the charges.
Her lawyer Mark Feigin said Savchenko, who has entered her third month of hunger strike, was in a 'buoyant mood' on Friday.
'Her weight has started to fall faster, now it's 58 kilograms (9st 2lbs). They say she is losing half a kilogram a day,' he told AFP.
Another of her lawyers, Nikolai Polozov, said that despite the drip-feed of glucose and vitamins 'essentially her hunger strike is approaching a phase when irreversible changes start in her body.'
'She's ready to fight until the end, that is until her death literally,' he told AFP.
'Since Putin personally spoke about Savchenko at the Minsk summit then he is responsible for this. And if she dies in prison, the responsibility will be on him.'
Savchenko, whose detention was this week extended until May 13, is alleged to have been abducted by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine and smuggled to Moscow, where she is now being detained.
Russia says she crossed the border of her own accord, pretending to be a refugee.
Savchenko is regarded as a role model for women in Ukraine, having earlier served in Iraq in a peacekeeping mission.
In Ukraine, Savchenko in October won a seat in parliament, standing in absentia for the party of ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Vedomosti, a liberal business daily in Russia, said this week the Ukrainian pilot was quickly turning into a 'martyr.'
'The longer Savchenko is on hunger strike, the more chances she has to become a new symbol of the arbitrariness of the Russian judicial system,' it said in an editorial.
A shaky truce in Ukraine was already at risk on its second day with both the Kiev government and pro-Russian separatists accusing each other failing to honour the terms of the deal.
'There is no question at the moment of us withdrawing heavy weapons' because of persistent rebel attacks, a Ukrainian military spokesman, Vladyslav Seleznyov, told AFP.
'The withdrawal of military hardware can only happen under certain conditions and one of them is a full ceasefire,' Eduard Basurin, a spokesman for the defence ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic was quoted as saying by the rebels' official news agency.
The main hotspot was Debaltseve, a key transport hub located between Donetsk and Lugansk, where fighting is unabated.
AFP journalists and an OSCE monitoring team near Debaltseve observed shelling in the area.
They were unable to enter the town because of the hostilities between thousands of government troops inside, and the rebels who have mostly surrounded it.
A municipal official who fled the town, Natalia Karabuta, told AFP that around 5,000 civilians were still trapped inside, with little food and water.
After a lull on Sunday, 'today (Monday) it all flared up again, and non-stop explosions were heard,' she said.
The separatists also said Ukrainian troops had fired on Donetsk airport as journalists were being shown around. No casualties were reported.
Kiev said five Ukrainian troops have been killed and 25 wounded in the town of Shyrokin, near the coastal city of Mariupol, since the ceasefire started.
Under the terms of a European-mediated peace plan agreed last week, two days of a 'comprehensive' ceasefire were meant to lead to a withdrawal of heavy weapons from the frontline, starting at midnight (10pm) Monday.
Other steps, including a prisoner swap and negotiations over increased autonomy for separatist-ruled areas, were then to follow.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said during a visit to Bulgaria that 'the Ukraine armed forces are fully observing the ceasefire regime but unfortunately in response we have received 112... attacks in the past 24 hours from the terrorists of Donetsk and Lugansk'
While tensions rose on the ground, the European Union upped the ante on the diplomatic front, adding two Russian deputy defence ministers, Anatoly Antonov and Arkady Bakhin, to its travel-ban and asset-freeze blacklist for allegedly sending Russian troops and materiel in to support the Ukrainian insurgency.
Three other Russians, including two lawmakers, and 14 Ukrainians acting as rebel military or political officials in the self-declared republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, were also blacklisted, along with nine entities.
The sanctions were agreed last month but put on hold while France and Germany worked to secure the ceasefire.
Russia denies repeated allegations it is sending troops and tanks to support the pro-Russian rebels. The West though has imposed sanctions that, along with the sharp decline in oil prices, are accelerating the Russian economy's slide into recession.
The internationally backed peace deal aims to end the bitter Ukraine conflict that has claimed more than 5,480 lives since it started in April last year, and has sent East-West relations to lows not seen since the Cold War.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said he could order martial law across the country if diplomacy fails.
A previous truce agreed in September similarly dampened fighting initially before eventually falling apart under the weight of constant breaches.
0 comments:
Post a Comment