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Former Ukrainian pilot held in solitary confinement in one of Rostov region’s jails

Nadezhda Savchenko is accused of involvement in the murder of two Russian journalists in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk Region last summer, and illegal crossing of the border with the Russian Federation

Nadezhda Savchenko EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV

Nadezhda Savchenko

© EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV

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Ukrainian ex-pilot Savchenko faces up to 25 years in jail

ROSTOV-ON-DON, July 27. /TASS/. Former Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko is in a solitary confinement in one of Rostov Region’s pre-trial detention centers, and there are no complaints about the conditions or her health, chairman of the regional monitoring commission Leonid Petrashis told TASS on Monday.

"She is held in a solitary confinement that meets all standards. She has no complaints. A doctor examined her, and a psychologist visited her as well. FSIN’s [Federal Penitentiary Service] regional department’s deputy head dealt with this. I received data, photographs and medical report. Today, I will talk to her [Savchenko] in person," Petrashis said.

He did not specify where exactly Savchenko is held. Her lawyers said earlier that the former Ukrainian pilot is held in a pre-trial detention center in Novocherkassk, around 30 kilometers to the north-east of Rostov-on-Don.

Savchenko is accused of involvement in the murder of two Russian journalists in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk Region last summer, as well as illegal crossing of the border with the Russian Federation. If found guilty, she faces up to 25 years in prison. The former pilot does not admit her guilt.

Preliminary hearings on Savchenko’s case will take place in Rostov region’s Donetsk court on July 30.

Nadezhda Savchenko case

According to investigators, during combat operations near the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk on June 17, 2014, Savchenko, who was an officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, from the location of the Aidar battalion — a paramilitary group of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry — in the vicinity of the village of Metallist secretly adjusted artillery fire on a section of the Luhansk People’s Republic militia's roadblock with civilians, including three Russian journalists. As a result, VGTRK journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin were killed.

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Nadezhda Savchenko

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