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Russian Foreign Ministry to inform about investigation into Savchenko case

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich says the ministry supports the position of the Investigative Committee on the case
Russian Foreign Ministry building in Moscow ITAR-TASS/Gennady Khamelyanin
Russian Foreign Ministry building in Moscow
© ITAR-TASS/Gennady Khamelyanin

MOSCOW, July 10. /ITAR-TASS/. The Russian Foreign Ministry would inform about the course of the investigation into the case of Nadezhda Savchenko, spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday.

The Voronezh regional court, which held the first discussion on the case on Thursday, took the decision to hold Savchenko in custody till the end of August, he said.

The diplomat said they would inform about the investigation and noted the ministry supported the position of the Russian Investigative Committee (IC).

Savchenko, a navigator of a Mi-24 helicopter, was detained by militiamen in the Luhansk region in early June, Lukashevich said. She was suspected of aiming Ukrainian aircraft strikes at targets on the ground. There are also suspicions that two Russian reporters were killed as a result of her actions, Lukashevich said.

On June 20, media and Russian television showed a video of questioning of Savchenko, who did not deny she had participated in a military operation of Ukrainian armed forces precisely at the site where the reporters were killed, he said.

Later, Savchenko under unknown circumstances independently crossed the Ukrainian-Russian border as one of refugees. After her identity was established, she was handed over to the IC for an investigation, the diplomat added.