Nadezhda Savchenko may be released following negotiations in Minsk

The release of Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko may be one of the results of the Normandy Four talks in Minsk to resolve the conflict in southeastern Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian service of the BBC, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said on February 12 that during the negotiations an agreement had been reached on the release of Savchenko.

“I was informed that this should be done in the near future after the completion of the medical examination and the preliminary findings of the investigation,” Poroshenko was quoted as saying by the Russian service of the BBC.

There was no confirmation of this information from Moscow at the time of writing. One of the clauses of the Minsk agreement, published on the Kremlin's website, is to ensure "the release and exchange of all hostages and illegally detained persons on the basis of the 'all for all' principle." “This process must be completed no later than the fifth day after the withdrawal,” the document says. The document does not specify who exactly is included in the exchange list.

Savchenko has been in Russian custody since the end of June 2014. A criminal case has been opened against her for her involvement in the murder of Russian journalists in the Donbass, as well as for illegally crossing the Russian border. Savchenko categorically denies his guilt. On December 15, she went on a hunger strike and has been in the Matrosskaya Tishina prison hospital since the end of January. On February 10, the Basmanny Court extended her detention for three months, until May 13, rejecting the lawyers' request to change the preventive measure to house arrest. The defenders emphasized that if the term of arrest was extended, Savchenko might not live to see the next court session.