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Moscow court rules to extend custody of Ukraine's ex-pilot Savchenko

Nadezhda Savchenko will be in custody at least till June 30

MOSCOW, May 6. /TASS/. Moscow's Basmanny Court on Wednesday extended the custody till June 30 of former Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, charged with complicity to killing Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine.

"The investigator's request to extend Savchenko's custody should be satisfied," judge Natalia Mushnikova said.

Earlier today, an ambulance was called to Savchenko during the hearings of her case after she said she was feeling unwell and was having chest pain. However, medics decided not to hospitalise Savchenko saying she could take part in the hearings.

Savchenko, 33, has been in custody in Russia since July 2014.

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