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Russian migration service destroys Savchenko’s abduction theory — Markin

There is evidence that former Ukrainian pilot stayed in the Russian territory for quite a long time after crossing the Russian border, a spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee says

© TASS/Vyacheslav Prokofiev

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

MOSCOW, July 23 /TASS/. A former Ukrainian military pilot, Nadezhda Savchenko, stayed in the Russian territory for a long time and has even asked the Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) to issue a document establishing her identity, Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee, said in an interview aired by the Vesti FM radio station on Thursday.

"Savchenko stayed in the territory of Russia’s Voronezh region for quite a long period of time after crossing the Russian border. We have witnesses who can confirm that she stayed in a Voronezh hotel. Investigators also have her application to the Federal Migration Service in which she asked them to issue a document to establish her identity," Markin said thus refuting the claims of Savchenko and her lawyers that she had been abducted.

He also said the investigators had irrefutable evidence of Savchenko’s guilt.

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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 Russia. If found guilty, she may face 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.

According to investigators, during combat operations near the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk on June 17, 2014, Savchenko secretly adjusted fire on a militia roadblock in the vicinity of Metallist village in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (DPR). As a result civilians and two Russian journalists (from VGTRK) — Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin — were killed.

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Russian Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin

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