Russia Jails Ukrainian National Hero Nadiya Savchenko for 22 Years
MOSCOW — A Ukrainian army officer was convicted of murdering civilians on Tuesday by a Russian court.
The court ruled 34-year-old gunship pilot Nadiya Savchenko coordinated artillery fire that killed two Russian journalists during the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
The Iraq war veteran — who is considered a national hero in Ukraine and has been described as the country's "Joan of Arc" — was also found guilty of crossing a border illegally. She was sentenced to 22 years in a Russian prison.
Savchenko burst into a patriotic song upon hearing the verdict Tuesday, drowning out the judge and necessitating a break in the hearing.
Pro-Russian rebels waged war against the Ukrainian government in 2014 and 2015. Officials in Kiev, as well as the United States, accused Russia of supporting the insurgency with arms and troops, a charge Moscow denies.
Savchenko denied all accusations, claiming she was captured by the separatists and handed over to Russia for an alleged kangaroo court intended to support Russia's allegation of Ukrainian war crimes.
President Barack Obama and EU leaders have previously demanded her release.
Savchenko was elected to the Ukrainian parliament while in Russian detention. She was also made Ukraine's representative to the European parliament.
Ukrainian officials have suggested she may be exchanged for Russian captives after the verdict. Russia said the matter could only be raised after the trial.
Savchenko said she would not appeal a guilty verdict to expedite her exchange, her lawyer Mark Feygin said on Facebook on Tuesday.
She repeatedly staged hunger strikes while in detention and earlier this month even flashed the judge her middle finger.
Ukrainian Military Pilot Nadiya Savchenko Faces Russian Verdict
MOSCOW — Ukrainian national hero Nadiya Savchenko will learn her fate on Monday and could be sentenced to up to 25 years in a Russian prison.
But in her homeland, the Ukrainian military pilot is seen as a symbol of resistance to what most consider an invasion by Vladimir Putin's forces. Despite spending the last 20 months behind bars, many are even backing her to become president.
Moscow accuses the 34-year-old Iraq veteran of involvement in the killing of two Russian civilians during the bloody civil war in eastern Ukraine.
Here's a look at the controversy surrounding a woman whom some Ukrainians call their own "Joan of Arc."
Who is she?
Savchenko dreamed about a military career from childhood, according to her sister Vera.
She enlisted in the early-2000s, first as a radio operator and then serving as a machine gunner in the 1,650-strong unit that Ukraine sent to Iraq in 2003. She was the only Ukrainian woman in the role at the time.
Her track record earned her a place at a pilot academy, though she was kicked out twice before graduating.
"She had exceptional grades, but could not tolerate the corruption at the academy," Vera Savchenko told NBC News. "One thing about her is, she could never stand injustice."
Nadiya Savchenko later served as a gunship pilot — becoming the first woman in Ukraine to get wings.
That alone made her a public hero in a country with a disappointing record on gender equality. Ukraine ranked 67th of 145 nations in the 2015 Global Gender Gap Report by the World Bank, next to Mexico, Bangladesh and Ghana. (The United States was 28th.)
When fighting involving Kremlin-backed militants broke out in Ukraine's eastern Donbass province in 2014, Savchenko joined a Ukrainian volunteer battalion. In June that year, she disappeared. She later resurfaced in Russian detention.
What did she allegedly do?
Moscow accuses Savchenko of coordinated a shelling that killed two journalists who worked for a Russian state-run media organization and who were embedded with the rebels in June 2014.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said law enforcement officials "have information that she had indeed coordinated fire," adding that the journalists' death was "murder" punishable by law.
FROM JULY 16, 2015: Ukraine Volunteers Battle Pro-Russia Rebels 0:28
The Investigative Committee — Russia's equivalent to the FBI — said Savchenko fled to Russia for unspecified reasons, where she was detained.
The committee did not return an official request for comment.
However, because Russia is not officially at war in Ukraine — and denies arming and directing the rebel groups or deploying its own military to help them — she is being tried under regular criminal law.
What's her side of the story?
Savchenko and her supporters say the case was fabricated.
"The charges are garbage not worth the paper they are printed on," Savchenko said in a Russian courtroom last year.
Her defense says Savchenko has a rock-solid alibi and claims she was helping wounded Ukrainians when she was captured and forcibly taken to Russia.
"The case is bogus and unfounded," Ukrainian consul in Moscow Gennady Breskalenko added.
"No one is even talking about this being a fair trial anymore," her lawyer Ilya Novikov told NBC News.
Savchenko's supporters and many activists say the case is really just Kremlin propaganda.
Human-rights groups such as Freedom House have long accused Russia of a smear campaign against Ukraine.
Savchenko's case was an attempt to give such claims a legal footing, according to Sergei Davidis of Russian rights group Memorial.
"They just needed a face to pin the blame on, and they caught Savchenko," Davidis told NBC News.
Memorial recognized her as a political prisoner in 2014.
How is she seen outside Russia?
The EU and the United States are considering a new round of anti-Russian sanctions over Savchenko, Ukrainian presidential spokesman Svyatoslav Tsegolko tweeted on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, Secretary of State John Kerry also made an unusually harsh statement calling for her immediate release."In the 20 months since she was captured in eastern Ukraine and taken to Russia, Ms. Savchenko has reportedly endured interrogations, solitary confinement, and forced 'psychiatric evaluation,'" he said. "Her trial and continuing imprisonment demonstrate disregard for international standards."
At home, Savchenko is a hero, her image boosted by her bravery in detention: she staged several hunger strikes, repeatedly blasted the Russian leadership and even flashed her middle finger to the judge when a hearing was postponed.
Rallies of support regularly draw thousands in Ukraine and a petition has been launched by supporters who want her to become president.
The Russian Embassy in Kiev was firebombed twice as her trial wound to a close.
Savchenko was also elected to the Ukrainian parliament in 2014 and made Ukraine's representative in the European Parliament — while in jail.
Russia still refused to release her, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow saying last year that her alleged crimes predate her parliamentary immunity.
What's next?
While few doubt that Savchenko will be convicted, even fewer expect her to be forced to stay in a Russian prison until the 2040s.
International pressure will likely prompt the Kremlin to exchange her for Russian prisoners of war after the verdict, lawyer Novikov said.
Ukrainian authorities are not ruling out any options, including a swap, diplomat Breskalenko said. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Russian television earlier this month the matter can only be raised after the verdict.
"Each day Savchenko spends in Russian detention harms Russia's global image," Davidis said. "They'll find a way to trade her away."
Ukraine to Russia: We Can't Pay $3 Billion Debt We Owe by the Weekend
MOSCOW — Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Friday that his country won't repay a $3 billion debt owed to Russia by this weekend after Moscow's refusal to accept repayment terms already offered to other international creditors.
The "moratorium" on outstanding debt repayments to Russia effectively means that Ukraine is defaulting on a $3 billion debt due Sunday and could jeopardize crucial loans that Ukraine has been receiving from a $17.5 billion bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund.
It's the latest spat between the two neighbors following a run of gas supply disputes and Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula.
"After Russia refused to accept our offer despite our attempts to reach a restructuring deal, the government is imposing a moratorium on the repayment of the $3 billion debt to Russia," Yatsenyuk said at a televised government session. "We are ready for court proceedings with Russia."
He did not indicate when Ukraine would be ready to repay the debt. Moscow has previously said it will take Ukraine to court if it fails to pay on time.
Alongside the sovereign debt, the government has decided to put on hold the repayment of a combined debt of $507 million that two Ukrainian state-owned enterprises owe to Russian banks.
Russia officials have not yet reacted to Yatsenyuk's statement.
Ukraine's economy has struggled over the past few years and the country has negotiated repayment terms with creditors, but not with Russia.
In November, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a debt restructuring, saying Moscow would be willing to agree to payments of $1 billion a year between 2016 and 2018.
Ukraine turned down the offer, saying it cannot legally offer Russia a better deal than the one it has negotiated with other debt holders.
Kiev has sought to give a political dimension to the debt, hinting that Russia bought Ukrainian bonds in December 2013 in an act of clandestine bribery of then President Viktor Yanukovych who was facing massive anti-government protests at the time.
Ukraine Lawmaker Manhandles Prime Minister, Sparking Parliament Brawl
KIEV — Fighting broke out among members of Ukraine's ruling coalition in parliament on Friday after a member of President Petro Poroshenko's bloc physically picked up Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk and pulled him from the podium.
Ukraine Lawmaker Grabs PM Sparking Parliament Brawl 0:54
Yatseniuk was defending his embattled government's record when lawmaker Oleh Barna walked over to him, presenting him sarcastically with a bunch of red roses. Barna then grabbed him around the waist and groin, lifting him off his feet and dragging him from the rostrum.
Members from Yatseniuk's People Front party waded in, pushing Barna and throwing punches. Lawmakers from Poroshenko's bloc joined the fray and an angry brawl ensued for several minutes before deputies returned to their seats.
The incident exposed deep divisions in the pro-Europe coalition that have fueled speculation the government could fall even as Ukraine's Western backers warn that time is running out for Kiev to make good on its promises to root out endemic corruption and cronyism.
Yatseniuk is, like Poroshenko, a pivotal player in the pro-Western leadership that emerged after the downfall of the Moscow-backed Viktor Yanukovich in February 2014. But support for him has fallen dramatically in the past year.
"The atmosphere in the room provoked mentally unbalanced people. Oleh Barna served on the frontline and is therefore too impulsive, but that does not excuse his actions," the head of Poroshenko's bloc Yuriy Lutsenko told journalists.
The brawl interrupted a question-and-answer session with Yatseniuk, 41, after he delivered a summary of the performance of his government, which after exactly one year in power is now no longer immune from being dismissed by parliament.
"I told you a year ago that nobody is going to promise the moon," Yatseniuk said, appearing to defend his cabinet from accusations they have not made good on their reform promises.
"You have full constitutional right to vote on the question of dismissing Ukraine's cabinet. Put it to the vote. I'll accept the decision of the Ukrainian parliament. I'm not clinging to this chair," he said.
Opposition parties are calling for a no-confidence motion to be tabled and commentators say enough votes could be gathered to dismiss the government, but a vote is not yet likely due to the lack of a candidate to replace Yatseniuk.
In an impassioned speech on Tuesday, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden urged parliament to put their differences aside to approve reforms, including critical tax and budget bills and judicial changes, without which he said Ukraine would fail to rebuild itself on transparent, democratic lines.
"The President, the Prime Minister, the members of this august body — all of you must put aside parochial differences ...If you fail, the experiment fails," he told parliament.
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