News

The Directorate for the investigating crimes connected with the use of prohibited means and methods of warfare of the Russia’s Investigative Committee is completing investigation against Ukrainian citizen Nadezhda Savchenko. She is charged with crimes under paragraphs “a”, “b”, “f”, “g” and “k” of part 2 of article 105 of the RF Penal Code, part 3 of article 30, paragraphs “a”, “b”, “f”, “g” and “k” of part 2 of article 105, part 1 of article 322 (murder of two or more people, attempted murder of two or more people  by a generally dangerous way motivated by political hate committed by a group of people in conspiracy, illegal crossing of the Russian border).

According to investigators during military actions near Luhansk in June 2014 Savchenko learnt location coordinates of a group of Russian journalists of VGTRK (Russian Broadcasting Company) and other citizens near Luhansk and passed them on to Ukrainian armed forces. After that it was those coordinates that were mortared killing VGTRK journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin. Other civilians also might have been wounded.

After Savchenko voluntarily had crossed theRussian-Ukrainian border without documents and had been detained, the investigation started which was pressed by Ukrainian and European human rights activists from the very start.

Nobody made any audible legal argument of protection, but only banal accusations of investigators of forgery and attempts to make the case political. To do that they first wanted to make Savechenko a prisoner of war, which she is not, and them they made her a deputy of the Rada and a representative in the Parliament Assembly of the European Council hoping to use functional immunity to release her, but they forgot that it doesn’t work in such cases. Not to mention a hunger strike the Ukrainian was advised to use to press the investigators and public opinion. In other words, Savchenko’s supporters basically used non-juridical actions for sole purpose of releasing the accused of a felony. The quintessence of it is the fact that Savchenko’s lawyers published the case files in the Internet despite the warning about legal liability for disclosure.

Despite all this hysteria the investigators calmly led the case to its logical ending. They have all necessary evidence and I can name only the main of them. In the first place, it is the data of a forensic expert examination, which confirmed that Savchenko could have corrected the shell fire near the village of Metallist. Secondly, the results of a ballistic inquiry of shell fragments pulled out of the victims’ bodies, confirming that it was a shell from D-30 howitzers. And thirdly, Savchenko’s handwritten records and a detailed map of the area indicating her role in the military actions.

The case against Savchenko was severed from the general criminal case over genocide and use of prohibited means and methods of warfare by Ukrainian militaries to form a separate lawsuit. Since Savchenko and her three lawyers have finished reading the case files, the case will soon be sent for the indictment to be approved and them to court.

I want to assure you that investigators will keep investigating crimes committed against Russian citizens impartially and not giving in to any kind of pressure, no matter where and who commit them.

Head of Media Relations                                                                                                                         V.I. Markin