Nadiya Savchenko, who had been in Russian custody since June 2014, when she was abducted from Ukrainian territory, and then imprisoned in Russia, is free at last. She returned home on Wednesday, May 25, to a hero’s welcome. As noted by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, who spoke out forcefully for the former Ukrainian military pilot’s release on many occasions during the last two years, it was “a day for celebration in Ukraine, as one of its patriots has finally returned home.”
Ms. Savchenko was held by the Russians for a total of 709 days. She became a symbol of Ukraine’s unyielding resistance to Russia, enduring imprisonment, repeated extensions of her detention, interrogations and a show trial that harkened back to the Soviet era. She protested her illegal detention and the trumped-up charges against her with several hunger strikes. She entered the courtroom declaring “Slava Ukraini,” appeared in court in Ukrainian embroidery and tryzub T-shirts, and she defiantly sang the Ukrainian national anthem. She fearlessly stated in a handwritten note on March 7: “Whether dead or alive, I have already won. I will leave jail on my own terms, showing the entire world that Russia may be forced into submission if you remain as fearless and unyielding as me.”
Yes, Nadiya Savchenko is indeed courageous and unbelievably strong. But she is also flesh and blood – a real person – and there is no doubt she needs some time to get well, to recuperate, to resteel herself for battle, whether in the Verkhovna Rada or elsewhere. (We will hear more from Nadiya at the press conference that has been announced for Friday, May 27, after our press deadline.)
But what we do already know is that she has pledged to continue the struggle – against Russian invaders, and for Ukraine’s brighter future. “I serve the Ukrainian people!” she proclaimed during a ceremony at the Presidential Administration, where President Petro Poroshenko awarded her the Gold Star of the Hero of Ukraine.
What’s more, we heard her first words upon returning to Ukrainian soil: “I want to ask forgiveness from all the mothers, whose children did not return from the ATO [anti-terrorist operation], while I am still alive. I want to ask forgiveness from the mothers whose children remain in prison, while I am free. I cannot return the dead, but I am ready to give my life on the battlefield for Ukraine, and I will do everything possible that each youngster who is in prison is freed. No heroes of Ukraine should die. …We will live a dignified life in Ukraine as a person should live! I don’t know how to do this, I tell you honestly. And I don’t promise that this will happen tomorrow. But I am ready to die each second for it to happen. And it will be so!”
With her return to Ukraine, “Savchenko’s nightmare has finally ended,” as Ambassador Power put it. But the diplomat also noted: “While we are overjoyed at the news that Savchenko is reunited with her family, we remember the other Ukrainians, such as Oleh Sentsov or Oleksander Kolchenko, still held unjustly by Russia. Like Savchenko, many of these Ukrainian citizens were detained in sovereign Ukrainian territory and then illegally transferred to Russia for sham trials.”
And, we must add, Ukraine’s soldiers continue to die on the battlefield despite the Minsk ceasefire agreements. Just this week, on the day before Ms. Savchenko’s release, Ukraine reported that seven servicemen were killed and nine were wounded in the east – the highest casualties since August 2015. Russia continues to supply the so-called separatist forces, and Russian convoys enter and leave Ukraine at will. At the same time, Crimean Tatars in Russian-occupied Crimea continued to be persecuted, activists mysteriously disappear, others are arrested and subjected to torture. Millions of internally displaced persons don’t know what tomorrow will bring.
And yet, incredibly, there is talk of loosening or lifting sanctions against Russia and its proxies. There is a sense that the West may agree to Russian control of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and/or a frozen conflict in Ukraine’s east. There is talk of holding elections on territory occupied by Russian and Russian-backed forces and, as a result, legitimizing the militants and terrorists in control.
That is not what Nadiya Savchenko and other Ukrainian patriots fought for. So, while we celebrate her release, we also hope for a just, wise and peaceful resolution to the war in Ukraine.