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EU External Action Service calls on Russia to release Ukrainian female pilot

On June 10 the Moscow city court extended Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko’s detention until September 30

Nadezhda Savchenko Vyacheslav Prokofyev/TASS

Nadezhda Savchenko

© Vyacheslav Prokofyev/TASS

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BRUSSELS, June 17. /TASS/. The European Union External Action has again called on Russia to release the former Ukrainian female pilot Nadezhda Savchenko suspected of involvement in the killing of Russian reporters near the city of Luhansk (in eastern Ukraine), the spokesperson for the EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

Maja Kocijancic said in her statement that Savchenko had spent 365 days of detention, most of them in Russia, which "have severely affected her health."

"The European Union firmly calls for her release. This would be in keeping with the ‘Package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements’ and the commitment to release all hostages and detained persons related to the conflict in Ukraine," the statement says.

On June 10 the Moscow city court extended Savchenko’s detention until September 30.

Savchenko is suspected of complicity in the killing of two Russian TV reporters, Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin, near Lugansk in July 2014. Investigators say that during combat operations on the city outskirts last summer, Savchenko, who was a gunner for a Mil Mi-24 helicopter gunship, joined the Aidar volunteer battalion - a paramilitary group of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry - and reported the coordinates of the Russian TV team to the Ukrainian troops that opened mortar fire on Kornelyuk and Voloshin.

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Nadezhda Savchenko

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