Nadiya Viktorovna Savchenko – Ukrainian military, People’s Deputy of Ukraine of the VIII convocation.
Place of Birth, Education
She was born on May 11, 1981 in the city of Kyiv.
After graduating from school, she received the specialty of a fashion designer, and also studied for a year at the Faculty of Journalism at the University “Ukraine”.
During 2005 – 2009 she was educated at the Kharkiv University of the Air Force. She was trained as a navigator on a Su-24 jet bomber, but at the end of the training she was reoriented to the Mi-24 helicopter.
After completing her studies, she served as a navigator-operator of the Mi-24 helicopter as part of the 3rd Separate Army Aviation Regiment of the Air Force of Ukraine, stationed in the city of Brody.
Career
She signed a contract to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), where she began serving in the railway troops, holding the position of a radio operator. Subsequently, she signed a new contract for service as part of the 95th Airmobile Brigade. The brigade was stationed in the city of Zhytomyr, during the formation of the first contract battalion.
During 2004 – 2005, she took part in a peacekeeping mission in Iraq as part of the Ukrainian contingent. For 6 months she served as a rifleman of the 3rd company of the 72nd separate mechanized battalion.
In 2014, during the hostilities in eastern Ukraine, she joined the Aidar battalion as a volunteer.
Captivity
On June 18, 2014, she was captured by the militants of the “Zorya” battalion. The next day, June 19, a video of her interrogation appeared on the network.
On July 8, it became known that Savchenko was being held in solitary confinement in a pre-trial detention center in Voronezh, Russian Federation (Russia). According to her, first the militants of the so-called “LPR” transported her to Luhansk, then to Krasny Luch. After that, they were taken to the territory of Russia, in particular to the village of Boguchar, Voronezh region. At the same time, Savchenko was groundlessly accused of murdering Russian journalists.
On July 10, 2014, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine appealed to the Council of Europe with a request to recognize Nadiya Savchenko, a servicewoman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as a hostage of Russia and demand her return. Already on the 15th, the European Court of Human Rights began considering the case.
On July 16, the Consul of Ukraine in Russia, Gennady Breskalenko, was able to meet with the serviceman after nine previous refusals by the Russian side to grant permission to visit. Her lawyer in the Russian court was Mark Feigin, who previously defended the members of the Pussy Riot group.
On September 14, 2014, during the congress of the Batkivshchyna party, it was decided to accept Savchenko into the ranks of the political force and nominated her as a candidate for people’s deputy, giving her the first number in the electoral list.
On October 10, the Memorial Human Rights Center recognized her as a political prisoner.
On October 27, Feigin’s lawyer reported that a Russian court had decided to extend her detention until February 2015. And on November 7, it became known that Savchenko submitted a report on dismissal from the Armed Forces of Ukraine due to the fact that she became a people’s deputy of the Verkhovna Rada.
On November 19, 2014, the Central Election Commission (CEC) registered her as a people’s deputy of Ukraine, and on November 25, she officially received the corresponding deputy certificate.
On March 22, 2016, the Donetsk City Court of the Rostov region (Russia) found her guilty of aiding and abetting the murder of VGTRK journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin. In particular, he imposed a sentence of 22 years in prison in a general regime colony, as well as a fine of 30,000 rubles.
Return to Ukraine
On May 25, Savchenko was exchanged for Russian servicemen Oleksandr Aleksandrov and Yevhen Yerofeyev, who were serving their sentences in Ukraine. On the same day, she returned to the territory of Ukraine.
In December of the same year, she was expelled from the Batkivshchyna parliamentary faction. The reason was called the discrepancy between her political views and the principles of political power.
During the early parliamentary elections in 2019 , she put forward her candidacy, but without success.
Criminal case
On March 15, 2018, the then Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko reported that Savchenko was allegedly preparing a terrorist attack in the premises of the Verkhovna Rada. He also submitted a petition to the parliament to give consent to bring her to criminal responsibility, detention and arrest.
The document submitted by the Prosecutor General’s Office noted that Savchenko, together with Vladimir Ruban, the head of the center for the release of prisoners “Officer Corps”, as well as with the leaders of the terrorist formations “DPR” and “LPR” Alexander Zakharchenko and Alexander Timofeev, allegedly developed a plan to organize a series of terrorist attacks and attempts on officials in order to forcibly change power in Ukraine.
On the same day, March 15, the Rada decided to expel Savchenko from the Committee on National Security and Defense.
On March 22, the parliament supported the lifting of parliamentary immunity from politics, detention and arrest.
On the same day, an investigator of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) informed Savchenko in the premises of the Verkhovna Rada about her detention.
On the 2nd, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv chose a measure of restraint for her in the form of detention for a period of 2 months.
In August 2018, the pre-trial investigation of the case was completed .
On the night of April 15-16, 2019, Savchenko and Volodymyr Ruban were released from custody due to the expiration of the arrest period.
