OTTAWA – Vira Savchenko, sister of illegally imprisoned Ukrainian military pilot Nadiya Savchenko, was welcomed last week to Canada by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC).
Ms. Savchenko was in Canada to raise awareness of the illegal arrest and imprisonment of her sister Nadiya by authorities in Russia.
While in Canada, she participated in the International roundtable discussion “Reforms, Security and the European Ukraine” on Saturday, April 25, in Toronto, and a banquet on Sunday, April 26, hosted by Dopomoha Ukraini, the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce and the UCC.
On Monday and Tuesday, April 27-28, Ms. Savchenko met with political leaders, members of Parliament, the Ukrainian community and the media in Ottawa.
Nadiya Savchenko, a Ukrainian air force pilot, was abducted by Kremlin-backed terrorists in the Luhansk Oblast in eastern Ukraine in June 2014. She was illegally removed from Ukrainian territory to the Russian Federation, where she continues to be illegally imprisoned.
The UCC noted that Ms. Savchenko’s detention is a flagrant violation of her basic human rights and Russia’s international commitments. She is a victim of Russia’s war against Ukraine and a political prisoner who must be immediately released by the Russian Federation. The Russian Federation is currently illegally detaining other Ukrainian citizens, in violation of their rights, such as filmmaker Oleh Sentsov.
Nadiya Savchenko is being held in Moscow, where she awaits a trial date on charges that she provided the coordinates of two Russian journalists who were killed in a mortar attack in the Luhansk Oblast as well as charges that she illegally crossed the border into Russia. Ms. Savchenko denies the charges, and cellphone records confirm that she had already been captured and was in custody when the journalists were killed. Furthermore, she was taken across the border into Russia against her will.
She undertook a hunger strike to protest her illegal detention. She has lost 17 kilograms (37 pounds), or 26 percent of her body weight. The U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights and governments across the world have called for Ms. Savchenko’s immediate release.
While in Ottawa, Vira Savchenko raised awareness of Nadiya’s grave situation and met with the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Consular, MP David Anderson; Sen. Raynell Andreychuk, chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committee; and MPs Paul Dewar, Ralph Goodale and Chrystia Freeland.
On the evening of April 27, Ms. Savchenko addressed over 100 members of the Ukrainian community assembled at Ottawa’s Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral hall, and responded to questions from the audience. She also met with representatives of the Embassy of Ukraine to Canada.