KYIV, Ukraine—As part of a prisoner swap, Russia has released jailed Ukrainian army helicopter pilot and Member of Parliament Nadia Savchenko, who became a national symbol of Ukrainian resistance to Russia since her capture nearly two years ago.
“This is good news for Ukraine,” said Alexander, a 21-year-old student who was out celebrating Savchenko’s release with friends on the Maidan, Kyiv’s central square, on Wednesday evening. “I’m proud of her. She’s a national hero.”
A Russian court sentenced Savchenko, 35, to 22 years in jail for her alleged role in killing two Russian journalists on a battlefield in eastern Ukraine during a 2014 mortar attack. Savchenko denied the charges, and many countries, including the United States, decried her trial and sentence as unjust.
At the time of her capture in June 2014, Savchenko was serving with the Aidar Battalion, a volunteer infantry unit. She was captured in Ukraine by combined Russian-separatist forces. Her trial was in Russia.
“I can’t bring the dead back, but I am ready to lay my life on the battlefield again, and I will do everything to ensure that every person who is in captivity walks free,” Savchenko told reporters after her return to Kyiv’s Boryspil airport Wednesday, according to Interfax-Ukraine, a Ukrainian news agency.
