This week, a court in Moscow rejected Nadiya Savchenko’s appeal of her pre-trial detention, ruling that she should remain in custody until May 13, presumably when her trial on trumped-up charges is supposed to begin. That’s despite the fact that the young woman’s health has seriously deteriorated. As these words are being written on our deadline day (Thursday, February 26), the courageous pilot is in the 76th day of her hunger strike, which she began back in mid-December to protest her illegal imprisonment in Russia after she was captured on June 18, 2014, by pro-Russian forces in Ukraine. 1st Lt. Savchenko, 33, has been charged with complicity in the deaths of two Russian journalists – though there isn’t a scrap of evidence to support those allegations. In January, Russian authorities cynically added another charge: illegally crossing the border, never mind that on June 20 she was abducted by Russian forces and taken from Ukraine to Russia with a sack on her head.
Her lawyers have argued that she should at least be released on bail until the trial date, but their appeals have consistently been rejected. At the initial custody-extension hearing on February 10, her lawyer expressed concern that Lt. Savchenko may not survive until May 13 if she remains behind bars. At her appearance in court that day, Lt. Savchenko, wearing a tryzub T-shirt and declaring “Glory to Ukraine” as she entered, said, “I will continue the hunger strike… and will continue it until I’m taken back to Ukraine or until I die.”
There had been a glimmer of hope for Lt. Savchenko’s release when the Minsk 2 ceasefire agreement was signed. After all, the document provided for “the release and exchange of hostages and illegally detained persons based on the principle of ‘all for all.’ ” (The earlier Minsk protocols of September 2014 also committed the sides to freeing all hostages and illegally held persons.) President Petro Poroshenko even announced that Lt. Savchenko would soon be freed thanks to the deal. But those hopes were quickly dashed when Russia insisted that the Minsk provisions did not apply to Lt. Savchenko, who is facing charges on a crime committed before she was elected to the Verkhovna Rada, and that she is not a prisoner of war. After she was elected a Ukrainian national deputy, Lt. Savchenko was named to Ukraine’s delegation to the Parliament Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which granted Lt. Savchenko immunity and said that status obligates Russia to release her immediately.
Numerous appeals have been made on Lt. Savchenko’s behalf also by the European Union, the United States, the United Nations and others.
This week, the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group reported: “Nadiya Savchenko is experiencing kidney and gall bladder problems. …[Nadiya] has lost over 26 percent of her weight …it is now 13 days since Savchenko accepted glucose-enriched water making the risk to her health, and her life, grave.” Russian authorities have ignored her requests that she be examined by an international team of medical specialists and refused permission for Ukrainian doctors from the official Feofaniya Clinical Hospital to examine her. Thus, Lt. Savchenko continues her hunger strike, notes Halya Coynash of the Kharkiv group, because she sees it as the only way to fight the injustice being perpetrated against her.
State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki on February 25 said: “The United States is deeply concerned by today’s decision by a Russian court to continue the detention of Ukrainian Member of Parliament Nadiya Savchenko to May 13. … The United States deplores her continued ill-treatment and is deeply concerned by reports of her deteriorating health.” Calling Russia’s detention and treatment of Lt. Savchenko “unacceptable,” the U.S. called for her immediate release.
The next day, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini condemned the court decision and said that “Russia bears a responsibility for [Savchenko’s] very fragile health.” Maja Kocijancic also called for Lt. Savchenko’s urgent release “on humanitarian grounds” and said that would be in line with commitments under the Minsk ceasefires.
It should now be eminently clear to all observers that the Moscow court this week handed down a death sentence to Lt. Savchenko. Lawyer Nikolai Polozov told Newsweek: “She is only alive thanks to her army training, will power and courage. But even that is not infinite. If we do not urgently take action, we will witness the dramatic finale of this story.”