Female Pilot Was Captured Nine Months Ago

A female Ukrainian helicopter pilot captured nine months ago and transported to Moscow has been seen for the first time by Ukrainian physicians.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said in a Tweet under the hashtag #FreeSavchenko that the visit had been made possible by the joint efforts of President Petro Poroshenko and the Ukrainian consul in Moscow.

Nadiya Savchenko (pictured), who is also a Ukrainian lawmaker, has been charged with being involved in the deaths of two Russian journalists in a mortar attack during fighting in eastern Ukraine. She has denied the charges, saying that she had been kidnapped and taken to the Russian capital. She staged a hunger strike that lasted more than 80 days before her health nearly collapsed, according to a report from the French news service AFP.

Savchenko's attorney Mark Reigin said that the visit was the first time Ukrainian doctors had been allowed to see the 33-year-old pilot, though she had previously been examined by German physicians.

Savchenko's political party posted a statement on their website that her condition is "satisfactory" but that she should be "under close medical supervision in hospital."

(Image from Ukrainian TV YouTube video)

FMI: www.president.gov.ua