01:18Ukraine: Protesters demand Savchenko's release outside Russian embassy in Kiev
Protesters threw green dye at the Russian embassy in Kiev, demanding the release of Nadezhda Savchenko, a Ukrainian officer currently detained over the deaths of Russian reporters, Wednesday. The rally comes on the day Savchenko made her closing statement at a court in Donetsk, southern Russia. She has been on hunger strike since March 3, and told the court she intends to prolong the act of protest until her March 21 sentencing.
The Ukrainian first lieutenant was detained in July 2014, and charged with complicity in the deaths of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine, and for illegally crossing the border.
According to prosecutors, she relayed the coordinates of a checkpoint where two Russian journalists were subsequently killed by Ukrainian artillery near Metalist in June 2014.
During the last court hearing, the prosecutors demanded that she be sentenced to 23 years in prison. Savchenko went on hunger strike for 83 days, demanding that her pre-trial conditions be changed from detention to house arrest.
In 2014, Savchenko volunteered to fight with the Aidar Battalion in eastern Ukraine. Before this, as a first lieutenant in the Ukrainian Ground Forces, she served with the Ukrainian peacekeeping troops in Iraq.
01:18Protesters threw green dye at the Russian embassy in Kiev, demanding the release of Nadezhda Savchenko, a Ukrainian officer currently detained over the deaths of Russian reporters, Wednesday. The rally comes on the day Savchenko made her closing statement at a court in Donetsk, southern Russia. She has been on hunger strike since March 3, and told the court she intends to prolong the act of protest until her March 21 sentencing.
The Ukrainian first lieutenant was detained in July 2014, and charged with complicity in the deaths of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine, and for illegally crossing the border.
According to prosecutors, she relayed the coordinates of a checkpoint where two Russian journalists were subsequently killed by Ukrainian artillery near Metalist in June 2014.
During the last court hearing, the prosecutors demanded that she be sentenced to 23 years in prison. Savchenko went on hunger strike for 83 days, demanding that her pre-trial conditions be changed from detention to house arrest.
In 2014, Savchenko volunteered to fight with the Aidar Battalion in eastern Ukraine. Before this, as a first lieutenant in the Ukrainian Ground Forces, she served with the Ukrainian peacekeeping troops in Iraq.