MOSCOW, February 27. /TASS/. Member of the Presidential Council for Facilitation of Civic Society Development and Human Rights, former TV reporter Yelena Masyuk, said on Thursday that the condition of health of the Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, whom she had visited earlier on the same day, had deteriorated notably in the previous several days.
"I must say after the meeting with Nadiya her condition has worsened sharply," Masyuk said in an appeal to members of the Council that was published at its official website. "Today is the 76th day of her hunger strike and she has been rejecting injections of glucose for fifteen years on end."
The Federal Service for the Penitentiaries said last week that a team of Russian physicians had examined Savchenko and had confirmed the accuracy of actions of the prison medics. Commission members stated the satisfactory condition of the controversial pilot’s health.
Masyuk on her part called on members of the Presidential Council for Facilitation of Civic Society Development and Human Rights to change the form of pretrial detention for Savchenko and to mitigate it to house arrest on the compound of the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow or in a residential apartment that would be rented by her lawyers.
Moscow City court ruled on Tuesday on legitimacy of Savchenko’s arrest until May 13. Investigators say she could continue engaging in criminal activity outside prison.
Reports said on Wednesday the EU was calling on Russia to free Savchenko, a lieutenant of the Ukrainian Air Force, for humanitarian considerations. The EU’s external policy serviced claimed Moscow was responsible for the frailness of her bodily condition.
Russian investigators say that Savchenko, the gunner of a Mi-24 helicopter, joined the notorious Aidar punitive battalion during combat operations in the much-troubled Lugansk region of Ukraine last June.
Upon finding out the position of a filming crew of the Russian State Broadcasting Company and other civilians, she reported the data to mortar men who then delivered fire at the crew and the civilians.
The incident took place near Lugansk. As a result, reporter Igor Kornelyuk and sound engineer Anton Voloshin were killed.