NEW YORK – Activists of the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America (UNWLA) met with two of the three attorneys representing 1st Lt. Nadiya Savchenko, the Ukrainian pilot captured by pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine in June of last year and now being illegally detained in Moscow, to discuss how the organization can help secure her release.
The meeting took place on December 9, 2014, at The Ukrainian Museum. Attorneys Mark Feygin and Nikolai Polozov said they came to the United States with one main objective: to achieve prisoner of war status for Lt. Savchenko.
Russia refuses to recognize that the pilot, who has been protesting her imprisonment with a hunger strike that she began on December 13, 2014, is a POW and thus subject to provisions of the Geneva Conventions. Her lawyers said they are not being allowed to see Lt. Savchenko until after the holiday season ends in mid-January.
Messrs. Feygin and Polozov had meetings in Washington with Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.S. Olexander Mostyk, officials at the U.S. State Department and members of Congress. In New York they met with Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Yuriy Sergeyev and agreed to meet with the UNWLA because its members have been rallying on Lt. Savchenko’s behalf since her capture.
Messrs. Feygin and Polozov, speaking through interpreter Vladislav Burlutskiy, said Lt. Savchenko receives many letters, especially cards from children, which help her stay strong, and they described her as strong-willed and very patriotic.
In October of last year, via the Embassy of Ukraine to the U.S., the UNWLA had sent a personal letter to Lt. Savchenko to convey moral support. The pilot’s handwritten response expressing thanks for the letter – and ending with the words “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!” – was forwarded by her lawyers to the UNWLA in late December.
UNWLA leaders present at the December 9 meeting included Vice-President for Public Relations Roksolana Misilo, Executive Treasurer Oksana Antoniuk and Honorary President Iryna Kurowyckyj, as well as other members of the organization. Also attending were Dr. Martha Kebalo, the main representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council of the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organization, and representatives of The Ukrainian Museum.
The liaison for Lt. Savchenko’s lawyers, Vladislav Burlutskiy, later gave the UNWLA an update: right now she gets no correspondence, mail nor e-mail; she is not well and had a painful ear infection that has worsened; the only one allowed to see her was Anna Karetnikova, member of a public commission monitoring prisons, who visited her on December 28, 2014.
The Savchenko defense team has called for a global “Free Savchenko Day” on January 26 – the first day of sessions for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The pilot is one of the 12 deputies chosen to represent Ukraine in PACE.
A trial date has not yet been set for Lt. Savchenko, who is facing charges of complicity in the killing of two Russian journalists. Her attorneys say they have ample evidence to prove her innocence.
According to UNWLA Vice-President Misilo, the organization has been supporting Lt. Savchenko from the first weeks of her capture. In July, she said, “We started with an e-mail action item on behalf of Lt. Nadiya Savchenko to the UNWLA membership, encouraging a media campaign by contacting the Russian Embassy and local representatives demanding her immediate release.”
The UNWLA sent letters to Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin and to Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislak to demand her immediate release. In addition, the UNWLA contacted former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Melanne Verveer, formerly the first U.S. ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues; United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights Zeid Raad Zeid al-Hussein; and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), co-chair of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus, to request their support for Lt. Savchenko’s release.