Ukraine calls on Russia to negotiate end to war in east

Russian prosecutors say Savchenko was involved the killing in her capacity as a volunteer in a Ukrainian battalion. They allege she acted as an aerial spotter to help Ukrainian ground forces target the journalists.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin is photographed during an…

Her defence argues that data from phone bills confirmed that Savchenko had already been taken prisoner by separatists when the Russian journalists died, insisting she was taken to Russia against her will.

Andrei Piontkovsky, a political scientist in Moscow, said the case against Savchenko is “completely fabricated”.

Novikov voiced doubts that she will receive a fair trial and believes a guilty verdict has been “written in advance”.

The Obama administration is imposing additional sanctions on more than two-dozen people or entities to strengthen existing restrictions in connection to Russian actions in Ukraine. “The court will rush and restrict the defense”. She broke off her hunger strike in March because of severe health problems.

“Going to Donetsk. Taking a flak jacket with me”, one of Savchenko’s lawyers, Mark Feigin, said on Twitter. “But not a person who is completely uninvolved with the crime”.

Her lawyers say the authorities violated legal procedures when they opted to try their client outside Moscow, in a border town close to a conflict zone, in an apparent bid to shield the hearings from the public eye.

Russian Federation has consistently denied giving any military support to the rebels in Ukraine, despite persistent reports to the contrary.

The U.S. and its allies believe that pro-Russian separatists shot down the plane with a Russian missile, although Putin continues to deny Russia’s involvement.

The website of Ukraine’s Novoye Vremya weekly published on Wednesday the transcript of what it said was a conversation between two pro-Russian insurgents who had just learned of Starkov’s detention.

Savchenko has become a cause célèbre in Ukraine.

Moscow is prosecuting her despite diplomatic immunity she enjoys as a lawmaker and a member of the Ukrainian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

According to the information of Interfax, besides U.S. diplomats, counterparts from Canada, the UK, Norway, Austria, Ukraine and the European Union observe the court proceedings over the case of the Ukrainian pilot in Donetsk (the Rostov region) as well.

But Moscow quickly shot down those hopes, declaring hers is a criminal case and that she was not detained illegally. He told the Interfax news agency Thursday that the Kremlin has no influence on the investigation or the court.

On Thursday, the US imposed further sanctions against Russian Federation over the events in eastern Ukraine and Crimea, targeting 11 more people and 15 more companies.