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Ukrainian female pilot Savchenko drawing Hermitage cats in jail

"She is quite vigorous," the head of the presidential human rights council, said after visiting Savchenko in jail

Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV

Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko

© EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV

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Jailed Ukrainian ex-pilot Savchenko suspends hunger strike

MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. Former Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko accused of aiding the killing of two Russian journalists in east Ukraine last year, is reading and drawing while waiting for trial in a Moscow jail, a Russian rights activist said on Monday.

"She is making drawings for the Hermitage [museum in St. Petersburg]. She knows that the Hermitage is famous for its cats and her drawing are devoted to them. She wants to send the drawings to the Hermitage," Mikhail Fedotov, the head of the presidential human rights council, said after visiting Savchenko in jail.

"She is quite vigorous," Fedotov said adding that Savchenko, who is currently on a hunger strike, had asked to give no comments on her health condition.

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

Noting the position of a filming crew of the Russian State Broadcasting Company and other civilians, she allegedly reported the data to mortar-equipped personnel who fired on the crew and the civilians. As a result, correspondent Igor Kornelyuk and sound engineer Anton Voloshin were killed.

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