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Jailed Ukrainian ex-pilot Savchenko to be examined by foreign doctors soon — official

Nadezhda Savchenko has been on hunger strike since mid-December
Nadezhda Savchenko EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV
Nadezhda Savchenko
© EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV

MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/. Ukrainian ex-military Nadezhda Savchenko, who has been on hunger strike since mid-December, may soon be examined by foreign doctors again, head of the Presidential Council on Development of Civil Society and Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov said on Tuesday.

"She was already examined by German doctors. I think that foreign medics will examine her again in the nearest future," Fedotov said.

Fedotov plans to visit Savchenko in jail in the next few days. He will be joined by the Council’s member Elizaveta Glinka, or Doctor Liza.

"We are watching her health condition very attentively. Doctor Liza also gives her supportive medicaments, so she receives the best supportive therapy," Fedotov noted.

"I can confirm that she constantly receives medical treatment," he said.

Savchenko demands independent examination

On February 19, Savchenko requested medical examination by an international independent panel of doctors. "Nadezhda Savchenko asks for undergoing a medical examination by an international independent panel of doctors, including a cardiologist," Savchenko’s lawyer Nikolay Polozov said.

The lawyer noted that the state of her health continues deteriorating, but she refuses to stop hunger strike.

According to Polozov, Savchenko does not trust doctors from Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FPS) and German medics that claimed to be "experts on hunger" and carried out only an ultrasound examination. "No one has seen any documents by German doctors. The defense and Savchenko herself appealed to FPS with a request to present the medical documents," he added.

Criminal case against Savchenko

Savchenko is accused of complicity to the death of two Russian journalists near Luhansk in eastern Ukraine and illegal border crossing.

Russian investigators say that Savchenko, the gunner of a Mi-24 helicopter, joined the notorious Aidar battalion during combat operations in the Luhansk region of Ukraine last June.

Upon finding out the position of a filming crew of the Russian State Broadcasting Company and other civilians, she allegedly reported the data to mortar men who then delivered fire at the crew and the civilians. As a result, correspondent Igor Kornelyuk and sound engineer Anton Voloshin were killed.

As she was elected a deputy of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (parliament) of the eighth convocation, she filed resignation from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.