Ukrainian pilot abducted by terrorists is in detention in Russia – accused of killing Russian journalists

The Investigation Committee of Russia (IC) presented accusation in aiding in the killing of employees of the Russian TV channel “Rossiya 1” (the All-Russian State TV and Radio Company) Ihor Korneliuk and Anton Voloshyn to the citizen of Ukraine, military pilot Nadia Savchenko. This was reported by the Russian information agency ITAR-TASS. Several days earlier, the video of her interrogation by the separatists from the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, who captured her on the territory of Ukraine, appeared online. 

In the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine it was admitted that the negotiations about releasing the Ukrainian pilot fell through. 

The Russian side insists that she was detained when she was illegally crossing the Ukrainian-Russian border as a refugee and without documents. According to this version, she was detained for identification, and it turned out that she was a suspect in the investigation of the killing of the Russian journalists. Currently she is kept in a pre-trial detention center in Voronezh. She was missing for almost a week.

For the context, on June 17 near Luhansk the journalist of the Russian TV channel “Rossiya 1” Ihor Korneliuk sustained grave wounds and died at hospital. The press service of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic claims that another member of the filming crew, sound engineer Anton Voloshyn died there as well.

On June 17, the President of Ukraine Petro Poporshenko made a statement that he insisted on a thorough investigation of the circumstances of Korneliuk’s death.