1. Nadiya Viktorivna Savchenko is a Ukrainian politician, former Army aviation pilot in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and former People's Deputy of Ukraine.
39 Facts About Nadiya Savchenko
1. 2.
Nadiya Savchenko was charged and convicted of murder and illegally crossing the Russian state border, despite being abducted from Ukrainian territory one hour before the deaths of the journalists.
3.
In November 2014, while still imprisoned, Nadiya Savchenko was elected to the Verkhovna Rada in the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, and she formally resigned from her military post.
4.
Nadiya Savchenko was released from detention on 15 April 2019.
5.
Nadiya Savchenko was one of Ukraine's first women to train as a military airplane pilot, and is the only female aviator to pilot the Sukhoi Su-24 bomber and the Mil Mi-24 helicopter.
6.
Nadiya Savchenko and her younger sister Vira were born in Kyiv in the Troieshchyna neighbourhood.
7.
Nadiya Savchenko's father was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union while her mother was an anti-communist.
8.
At 16, Nadiya Savchenko was already determined to become a pilot.
9.
Nadiya Savchenko joined the Ukrainian Army, working as a radio operator with the country's railway forces before training as a paratrooper.
10.
Nadiya Savchenko amassed 170 flying hours as a Mi-24 navigator.
11.
Nadiya Savchenko featured in a United Nations Development Program as part of a drive to promote equality in the Ukrainian military.
12.
Nadiya Savchenko found her time in Brody boring and often got drunk.
13.
Nadiya Savchenko was unhappy flying on the Mi-24 attack helicopter, instead of the Su-24 bomber.
14.
Nadiya Savchenko's former commanding officer at Brody, Edward Zahurskiy, described her as a problem officer, who was unstable, insubordinate, and lacked discipline.
15.
Nadiya Savchenko then joined the Euromaidan demonstrations.
16.
Nadiya Savchenko kept a low profile during the protests; there is a video of her trying to persuade demonstrators not to throw petrol bombs at riot police.
17.
Angry over her unit not being deployed in the war in Donbas, Nadiya Savchenko defied orders and left Brody, and she volunteered as an instructor in the Aidar Battalion.
18.
On 8 July 2014, there were media reports that Nadiya Savchenko was being kept in a detention centre in city of Voronezh in the Russian Federation.
19.
On 27 August 2014, during a hearing at the Sovetsky district court of Voronezh, Nadiya Savchenko appeared wearing a T-shirt with the Ukrainian state symbol and spoke exclusively in the Ukrainian language.
20.
Nadiya Savchenko's lawyer, Mark Feygin, said she was a prisoner-of-war.
21.
Nadiya Savchenko officially became a Ukrainian delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, or PACE, on 26 January 2015; thus on a legal level, she obtained parliamentary immunity in all PACE signatory states, including Russia, from that date.
22.
On 24 July 2015, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee of Russia, contrary to the information of Nadiya Savchenko's capture published earlier by Donetsk People's Republic, stated that she voluntarily crossed the Russian border with intention of committing acts of sabotage and freely moved on the territory of Voronezh Oblast until 30 June when she was arrested.
23.
In February 2016, the US State department's spokesperson Jen Psaki voiced deep concern over the continued ill-treatment and deteriorating health of Nadiya Savchenko, and called on Russia to honour its commitments under the September 2014 Minsk agreements, and the 15 February implementation plan by immediately releasing Nadiya Savchenko and other Ukrainian hostages.
24.
On 7 March 2016, US Secretary of State John Kerry protested Nadiya Savchenko's continued detention, specifically mentioning concerns about her interrogations, solitary confinement, and forced "psychiatric evaluation".
25.
Nadiya Savchenko was freed in a prisoner swap on 25 May 2016 for two Russian servicemen.
26.
Nadiya Savchenko was released from custody in Rostov-on-Don and immediately on a presidential flight brought to Boryspil.
27.
Nadiya Savchenko's trial caused a significant response inside Ukraine, Russia and internationally.
28.
The Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda said that Nadiya Savchenko is known as a "killing machine in a skirt", and Tvoy Den called her "Satan's daughter".
29.
Nadiya Savchenko described the trial as such an "obvious stitch-up" you could "see the threads".
30.
Nadiya Savchenko won and was elected as a deputy to the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament of Ukraine.
31.
In late November 2014, Nadiya Savchenko signed her parliamentary oath and passed it to Ukraine through her lawyer and was thus sworn in as People's Deputy of Ukraine on 27 November 2014.
32.
On 25 December 2014, Nadiya Savchenko was included in Ukraine's quota for representatives in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe ; as noted above, legally this granted her parliamentary immunity in all PACE signatory nations, including Russia.
33.
On 27 May 2016, after returning from Russia in a prisoner exchange, Nadiya Savchenko said she was prepared to become President of Ukraine if Ukrainians wished.
34.
In 2016, Nadiya Savchenko left Batkivshchyna, but remained a member of its parliamentary faction.
35.
On 27 December 2016, Nadiya Savchenko established the Civic Platform RUNA.
36.
On 15 March 2018, the Attorney General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko charged Nadiya Savchenko with preparing a terrorist attack on the Ukrainian parliament.
37.
Nadiya Savchenko said she did not plan any terrorist attack, but instead talked with undercover Ukrainian government agent provocateurs who sought to discredit her.
38.
Nadiya Savchenko was released from detention on 15 April 2019.
39.
Nadiya Savchenko took part as a candidate in 2019 Ukrainian presidential elections and 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary elections, but she was not elected.