Ukraine's Poroshenko ready to swap two Russian GRU officers for Nadiya Savchenko (video)
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President Petro Poroshenko is ready to swap two Russian GRU force fighters, Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Alexander Alexandrov , who were detained in Ukraine in May 2015, for Nadiya Savchenko, he said in yesterday’s statement after Russian court had passed a severe sentence on the Ukrainian aviatrix.
“The whole world supports us in the battle for Nadiya’s liberation. From now on, this struggle enters the final stage. I do not only hope that Nadiya Savchenko will return to Ukraine. I am doing everything possible and impossible for that,” the statement says.
In the course of the meetings at the highest level in the Normandy format, Poroshenko repeatedly raised the issue of liberation of Nadiya and other Ukrainian hostages and received support from other participants of the format. President Putin said that he would return Nadiya Savchenko to Ukraine after the so-called court decision, the Ukrainian leader states.
“Now it is the time to fulfill that promise. In my turn, I am ready to convey two Russian servicemen detained in our territory for their participation in the armed aggression against Ukraine. Judicial inquiry of their cases is on the final stage. Immediately after its completion, I am ready to ensure their transportation to the Russian Federation through appropriate procedures,” he promised.
Read also: Kremlin washes hands of Russian soldiers captured in Ukraine, calls them ‘mercenaries’
According to Poroshenko, such an approach corresponds to item 6 of the Minsk agreements, i.e. exchange all for all.
“This should be done immediately. Today, the entire Ukraine is together with Nadiya, her mother Mariya Ivanivna and sister Vira. I believe that our common efforts will be successful. And the Hero of Ukraine, people’s deputy of Ukraine, officer of the Ukrainian Armed Forces will come back home. We are waiting for her,” Petro Poroshenko said.
On March 22, Russia’s court found Nadiya Savchenko, a Ukrainian military pilot, guilty of complicity in the deaths of two Russian journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin who were killed by mortar fire, and sentenced her to 22 years in a penal colony.
The trial of Savchenko started In September, 2015. The Ukrainian pilot is accused of murdering Russian journalists and illegal border crossing. In her turn, the woman denies any wrongdoing. According to Savchenko, she was abducted by force and transported to Russia. In protest, Nadiya Savchenko started hunger-striking several times. Savchenko’s lawyers state that at the moment shelling the defendant was in captivity in Russia and, consequently, she was not able to regulate fire.
Nadiya Savchenko prolonged her contract with Russian lawyer Mark Feygin and asked him not to file any appeals or requests for pardon without her request.
Belsat.eu
