Ukrainian Member of Parliament, former commander of the Aidar Battalion Serhiy Melnychuk has said he is ready to provide guarantees for the release of Ukrainian MP Nadiia Savchenko, who is suspected of plotting terrorist attacks and seizing state power.
The journalists learned about this before the court hearing on Monday, May 14, the news outlet Hromadske reports.
Before the meeting, Savchenko's press secretary Tetiana Protorchenko said it was Nadiia's own decision to give up the lawyers' services.
Read alsoLutsenko claims he knows names of Russian colonels who armed Savchenko for terror act
As UNIAN reported, the Verkhovna Rada on March 22 green-lighted the arrest of MP Nadiia Savchenko, a former Ukrainian pilot released from a Russian prison as part of a prisoner-of-war exchange. Ukraine's prosecutors charged Savchenko with plotting a coup and an act of terror in Ukraine, following an elaborate sting operation by SBU Security Service agents, who initially targeted former hostage swap negotiator Volodymyr Ruban.
The latter is believed to have conspired with Savchenko. Savchenko is suspected of committing crimes under Part 1 of Article 109 (actions aimed at the forcible change or overthrow of the constitutional order or seizure of state power); Part 1 of Article 14 (preparations for a crime), Part 2 of Article 28 (committing a crime by a group of persons, a group of persons by prior agreement, an organized group or a criminal organization), Article 112 (an attempted attack on the life of a public figure), Part 3 of Article 258 (an act of terror); Part 1 of Article 258-3 (creation of a terrorist group or organization) and Part 1 of Article 263 (illegal possession of weapons, ammunition or explosives) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
On March 23, Kyiv's Shevchenkivsky district court ruled that Savchenko be remanded in custody for 59 days without bail.
She announced in the courtroom she would go on hunger strike, denying plans to flee Ukraine.
On March 29, Kyiv's Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the first instance court to keep Savchenko behind bars for a period of 59 days until May 20.
It became known on May 11 that Savchenko's two lawyers – Oleh Soloviy and Dmytro Buhai – had refused to work for her.
UNIAN memo. Nadiia Savchenko, a former Army aviation pilot, fought as a volunteer of the Aidar Battalion in the Donbas war before she was captured by Russian-led forces in June 2014. In May 2016, she was exchanged in a prisoner swap for Russian GRU officers and returned home.
