Nadiya Savchenko

Nadiya Viktorivna Savchenko (Надія Вікторівна Савченко) (born on May 11, 1981 in Kyiv, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian military pilot and former officer (first lieutenant) of the Ukrainian army.

In 2014, Savchenko was captured by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, later handed over to Russia, and charged with the killing of two Russian journalists during the 2014 insurgency in Donbass. In November 2014, while still held prisoner in Russia, Savchenko resigned from the Ukrainian army after being elected and sworn in as a member of the Ukrainian parliament in October 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election. She remains a prisoner in Russia. Her lawyer, Mark Feygin, says she is a prisoner-of-war and has called on the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations to demand her immediate release and that of the other Ukrainian POWs lest Russia be held in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Savchenko was one of Ukraine's first women to train as an air-force pilot, and to date the country's only female aviator of the Sukhoi Su-24 bomber, and of the Mil Mi-24 helicopter.

Life and military career
Nadiya Savchenko and her younger sister Vira, whose names translate as "Hope" and "Faith," respectively, were born in Kyiv. Their father was an agricultural engineer, their mother a designer and cargo manager. Her sister Vira said in an interview that she and her sister were brought up in a Ukrainian-speaking household and attending Ukrainian-language schools.

At 16, Savchenko was already determined to become a pilot. She joined the Ukrainian Army, working as a radio operator with the country's railway forces before training as a paratrooper. She was then the only Ukrainian female soldier in the (2004–2008) Ukrainian peacekeeping troops in Iraq. Upon returning, she successfully petitioned the Defense Ministry for the right to attend the prestigious Air Force University in Kharkiv, which until then had been open only to men; she graduated in 2009.

In 2010, she was posted to the 3rd Army Aviation Regiment in Brody, Lviv Oblast. In 2011, the Ukraine Defense Forces published a 20 minute documentary about Savchenko and her military career. She also featured in a United Nations Development Program as part of a drive to promote equality in the Ukrainian military. In 2014, she enrolled as a volunteer to fight in the Aidar Battalion.

Capture by rebels
During the 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine, Savchenko fought as a volunteer in the east of Ukraine in the Aidar Battalion. On June 18, 2014, she was captured near the village of Metalist, Slovianoserbsk Raion, by members of the Donbass People's Militia, an armed pro-Russian militant group that declared allegiance to the self-declared People's Republic of Luhansk. On June 19 a video of her interrogation at an undisclosed location appeared on the internet; she was shown handcuffed to a metal pipe. On June 20, the chief of counterintelligence Vladimir Gromov said that Savchenko was being well treated. On June 22, there were media reports that Savchenko had been transferred to Donetsk.

Detention in Russia
On July 8, 2014, there were media reports that Nadiya Savchenko was being kept in a detention center in city of Voronezh, Russia. On July 9, ru, spokesman for Russia's Investigative Committee (a federal agency subordinate to the Russian President) confirmed that Savchenko was indeed held in Voronezh, where she is facing charges of complicity in the June 17 killing of two Russian journalists, ru (a correspondent for All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company), and sound producer Anton Voloshin, who died during a mortar attack on a rebel checkpoint outside Luhansk. Ukrainian officials said the reporters did not comply with safety requirements and were not accredited. According to Savchenko's defence team she was captured by the rebels one hour before the mortar attack that killed Russian journalists. This alibi is supported by the billing data of Savchenko's and Kornelyuk's mobile phones.

Russia's Investigative Committee insists she crossed the border voluntarily, without documents and in the guise of a refugee. Russia's pro-Kremlin TV channel NTV, however, reported on June 20 that Savchenko had been captured by "rebels" and then handed over to the Russian authorities. Ukrainian officials said she had been illegally taken to Russia by Russian intelligence services in collaboration with pro-Russian rebels.

Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a strong protest against the illegal transfer of Savchenko to Russia, calling the kidnapping of the Ukrainian citizen an act of state terrorism. On July 8, President Petro Poroshenko instructed the General Prosecutor of Ukraine to take all measures to bring about Savchenko's release. In response, Vladimir Markin at Russia's Investigative Committee claimed that Savchenko was a terrorist and that the chances of her being released were on a par with those of Petro Poroshenko replacing Barack Obama as President of the United States.

On July 10, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a website statement that "This is a violation of all international agreements, all norms of law and is unacceptable." President Poroshenko emphasized that "Nadiya Savchenko is a symbol of the struggle for Ukraine. While in captivity she has demonstrated the true, strong, martial Ukrainian spirit of a serviceman who doesn’t betray the Motherland." The President also said he had ordered a new lawyer for Savchenko.

As of July 11, Savchenko's Russian defense lawyer is Mark Feygin, who is known for his defense of Pussy Riot. On August 27, 2014 during a hearing at the Sovetsky district court of Voronezh, Savchenko appeared wearing a T-shirt with the Ukrainian state symbol (Tryzub) and spoke exclusively in the Ukrainian language. She also stated that she had been detained in Russia since June 24 instead of June 30 as the Russian investigation reports. Upon conclusion of the hearing the court extended Savchenko's detention for a further two months and ordered that she be sent for a month to the Serbsky Institute for a forensic psychological evaluation, which Savchenko opposed.

On 22 December 2014 Moscow City Court upheld the decision to extend the arrest of Savchenko until the end of the investigation; the investigation is scheduled to be concluded by 13 February 2015. Savchenko subsequently began a hunger strike. The European Union and the United States have condemned Savchenko's detention and have called for her release. Her lawyer, Mark Feygin, says she is a prisoner-of-war.

Savchenko officially became a delegate to Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, of which the Russian Federation is also a member, on 26 January 2015, thus she obtained international diplomatic immunity from that date. Despite this she was not released. Aleksey Pushkov of the Russian Duma stated that her appointed to PACE was an attack against Russia and that gaining diplomatic immunity does not absolve one from previous crimes. However, the Russian delegation to PACE struck a different tone, stating that it "fully supports the release of Nadia Savchenko."

Political career (since 2014)
In the October 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election Savchenko was placed first on the party list of Batkivshchyna. In this same election her sister Vira Savchenko was also a candidate for Batkivshchyna in an electoral constituency in Yahotyn. Nadiya Savchenko was elected as a deputy to the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament of Ukraine, as a result of the election. Because of this Savchenko resigned from the Ukrainian army on 7 November 2014. The Russian government has recognized the elections of Ukraine, meaning that the Russian Federation is currently holding a member of parliament from another nation under arrest. Vira Savchenko finished third in her constituency with 7.02% of the votes (winner Serhiy Mishchenko won 40.41%) and was thus not elected.

In late November 2014 Savchenko signed her parliamentary oath and passed it to Ukraine through her lawyer and was thus sworn in as People's Deputy of Ukraine (mp) on 27 November 2014.

On 25 December 2014 Savchenko was included in Ukraine's quota for representatives in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Savchenko is set to become a member of Ukraine's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. If her nomination is confirmed she will be granted international diplomatic immunity, suggesting that if Russia continues to detain her it will be in violation of international law.

Public image and media war
Since news of her arrest was reported on 19 June Savchenko's fate has become the subject of an impassioned Ukrainian social media campaign portraying her as a national hero. This social media campaign used the hashtag #SaveOurGirl (that mid-July 2014 had generated more than 15,000 tweets); apparently inspired by the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls used in the May 2014 Chibok schoolgirl kidnapping social media worldwide campaign.

In Russia, Savchenko is portrayed extremely negatively in the media; according to BBC News "Crude, and at times sexist, innuendo is used to demonise Ms Savchenko". Russian Daily Komsomolskaya Pravda alleges that Savchenko is known as a "killing machine in a skirt." Russian social media, however, tends to be more nuanced towards her with several users mocking perceived oddities in the Russian authorities' version of events, in particular their claim that she entered the country as a refugee.