Trial of Ukrainian pilot accused of murdering Russians begins

The murder trial of Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko has begun despite international condemnation and accusations that the charges have been fabricated for political purposes.

Ms Savchenko - the best known Ukrainian citizen currently being held in Russia - is accused of directing artillery fire that killed two Russian journalists , Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin, during fighting in eastern Ukraine. She faces 25 years in prison on charges of murder, attempted murder and illegally crossing the border.

Ms Savchenko and some western countries have said she should be considered a prisoner of war. The parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe approved Ms Savchenko as a member of the Ukrainian delegation in January, a position that entitles her to international immunity from prosecution.

Prosecutors at the trial in Donetsk said on Tuesday that Ms Savchenko, the first female military pilot in post-Soviet Ukraine, was working as a spotter for Ukrainian forces near Luhansk in June 2014.

Motivated by “hatred and hostility towards the civilian population of Luhansk region”, they said she called in an artillery strike on a rebel checkpoint where civilians and journalists were present.

Investigators have claimed she was later detained after she crossed into Russia as a refugee without documents.

Ms Savchenko has denied the charges and said she was captured by rebels in June 2014 and handed over to Russian authorities. Dressed in a Ukrainian folk costume and looking far healthier than after her 80-day hunger strike in detention earlier this year, Ms Savchenko told the court that her case had been fabricated by the investigative committee.

“Never in my life have I fired at unarmed people. I have never been a spotter,” she told the court. At one point she said “Glory to Ukraine,” a rallying cry often heard during the protests that ousted president Viktor Yanukovych and during the ensuing conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Ms Savchenko spoke and gestured to her sister Vera through the glass of the defendants’ cage. Only Russian state television journalists were allowed into the tiny courtroom, with the rest having to watch the proceedings on a live video feed.

It is widely thought that a guilty verdict will be delivered. Last month, a Russian court sentenced Oleg Sentsov, a pro-Ukrainian film director from Crimea, to 20 years in prison over accusations that he planned terrorist acts in Crimea after the peninsula was annexed by Russia last year . Amnesty International described proceedings as "redolent of Stalinist-era show trials". His alleged accomplice, activist Oleksandr Kolchenko, was sentenced to 10 years.

The United States and Britain have argued that Ms Savchenko’s detainment is a violation of the Minsk peace plan agreed in February, under which Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchange all hostages and unlawfully detained people.

It had previously been speculated that Mr Sentsov and Ms Savchenko could be swapped for two Russian special forces soldiers captured by government forces in eastern Ukraine, but president Petro Poroshenko said in an interview this month that this was “not a topic of exchange”.

Guardian Service