The Kremlin declines to comment on Savchenko's hunger strike
Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the hunger strike declared by Nadiya Savchenko, the Ukrainian pilot being charged in a Russian court.
“I do not want to comment on it. It is not a question that relates to our agenda. Moreover, there is a trial, and certainly some comments from our side would not be allowed,” Peskov said, as reported by Interfax.
Savchenko declared a hunger strike starting March 3rd after the Donetsk City Court in the Rostov region announced that she would not be given a chance to make her final closing statement during a hearing on Thursday.
Nadiya Savchenko has been charged with the murder of two Russian journalists as well as charges of attempted murder of members of the separatists group and of illegally crossing the Russian border. It is widely believed that Savchenko was in fact captured by Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) separatists in eastern Ukraine and was illegally transported to Russia, where the case was fabricated against her.
On Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office requested that she be sentenced to 23 years in a penal colony plus a fine of 100,000 rubles ($1,400).