DONETSK (Rostov region), March 21. /TASS/. Former Ukrainian military navigator Nadezhda Savchenko found guilty of murdering Russian journalists in Ukraine’s Lugansk region does not recognize the verdict of the Russian court whatever it may be.
"Savchenko is not interested in this verdict, she considers it a kangaroo court. She has just told me that she does not recognize it, whatever it is, she will not appeal it," lawyer Nikolay Polozov said during a break in the session of the Donetsk city court in Russia’s southern Rostov region, which began reading out Savchenko’s verdict earlier on Monday.
He noted that, after the verdict is read out, she would resume a dry hunger strike demanding her release and return to Ukraine.
According to another Savchenko’s lawyer, Mark Feigin, currently she refuses to eat solid food consuming only water and infant formulas. He noted that she would not listen to the lawyers who try to talk her out of the hunger strike explaining that it is dangerous for her health.
According to the prosecution, Savchenko, an officer of the Ukrainian armed forces on June 17, 2014, was in the area controlled by the paramilitary battalion Aidar near the village of Metallist, the Lugansk Region. She was conducting concealed observation and adjusting artillery fire against a roadblock held by militias of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic and a group of civilians there, including three Russian journalists. The artillery bombardment killed two of them - Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin.
Savchenko is charged on three counts - murder, attempted murder and illegal border crossing. The prosecutor has asked the court to sentence Savchenko to 23 years in a standard security penitentiary and a fine of 100,000 rubles.
Savchenko pled not guilty, saying she had never killed unarmed people.
The Savchenko trial began on September 22, 2015.