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Jailed Ukrainian ex-pilot Savchenko suspends hunger strike

Nadezhda Savchenko takes food once a day, some cottage cheese, milk and some casserole

Nadezhda Savchenko EPA/TASS/ MAXIM SHIPENKOV

Nadezhda Savchenko

© EPA/TASS/ MAXIM SHIPENKOV

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MOSCOW, April 3. /TASS/. Ukrainian ex-pilot Nadezhda Savchenko has suspended her hunger strike in a Moscow jail, a member of Russian presidential human rights council, Elizaveta Glinka, said on Friday.

"She is feeling better. She takes food once a day, some cottage cheese, milk and some casserole. That’s just to keep her feet. This is called ‘suspending hunger strike,’" Glinka, who is better known as Dr. Liza, said after visiting Savchenko in jail.

Savchenko is accused of complicity in the killing of two Russian journalists, Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin, last summer and illegally crossing the Russian border.

The Ukrainian national, who refused to admit her guilt, went on hunger strike in mid-December to protest against her custody. In early March, she started taking chicken broth and special medical nutritional supplements.

On March 16, Savchenko’s lawyer Mark Feygin said his client resumed hunger strike. The head of Russia’s presidential human rights council, Mikhail Fedotov, and Russian human rights commissioner Ella Pamfilova have visited Savchenko in jail several times.

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