DONETSK – A Russian judge on Monday said Ukrainian pilot
Nadezhda Savchenko was complicit in the killing of two Russian journalists, an
assertion certain to inflame already dire relations between Moscow and Kiev.

Savchenko, 34, was captured by pro-Moscow rebels in
eastern Ukraine in June 2014 during the separatist conflict there and handed
over to Russia where she was charged with directing mortar fire which killed
two Russian journalists.

She has denied wrongdoing.

Savchenko is regarded as a national hero and symbol of
anti-Kremlin defiance by many in her native Ukraine. In Russia, state TV has
depicted her as a dangerous Ukrainian nationalist with the blood of civilians
on her hands.

The judge, Leonid Stepanenko, told a courtroom in southern
Russia that the panel of judges had established that Savchenko had
“deliberately inflicted death on two persons, acting by prior conspiracy,
and on the motives of hatred and enmity.”

Russian news agencies reported that his words amounted to
a formal guilty verdict. However, the judge was still reading his conclusions
and the final verdict had not yet been handed down.

Savchenko’s lawyers, Mark Feygin and Nikolai Polozov, told
Reuters they expected the final verdict would come later on Monday or even on
Tuesday.

Prosecutors have asked the court to sentence her to 23
years in prison. Savchenko hopes she will be returned to Ukraine before too
long as part of an exchange deal between Moscow and Kiev and has been on hunger
strike to try to speed up the trial and its outcome.

– Reuters