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Ukrainian ex-pilot Savchenko to be sent to Moscow hospital

"She continues losing weight and her blood glucose is falling. She is in a precoma state," the lawyer said
Nadezhda Savchenko (right) EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
Nadezhda Savchenko (right)
© EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV

MOSCOW, April 27. /TASS/. Nadezhda Savchenko, a former Ukrainian pilot who is awaiting trial over complicity in the deaths of Russian reporters, is due to be moved to a city hospital in Moscow on Tuesday, her lawyer has said.

"Tomorrow, she will be sent to city hospital number 20," Mark Feygin told TASS.

Doctors are concerned that Savchenko’s weight cannot stabilize following the hunger strike.

"She continues losing weight and her blood glucose is falling. She is in a precoma state," the lawyer said. "That’s why the concilium of medical bloc in the pre-trial detention center where Savchenko is now has decided to send her to the city hospital," he said.

The defendant will be in a separate ward at the hospital and will be supervised by guards. Savchenko has agreed to being hospitalized, he said.

Earlier on Monday, the head of Russia’s presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, Mikhail Fedotov, said also expressed concerns over Savchenko’s health and said she could be moved to a hospital.

Savchenko is charged with complicity in the murder of two or more people by a method posing universal danger and out of the motives of political hatred, as well as of an illegal crossing of the Russian border.

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.

Posing as a refugee, Savchenko later crossed the Russian border and was detained during a document inspection. Savchenko has been in custody in Russia since July 2014.