"Let’s start, because I could be dead by the next court hearing," she said before the hearing in Moscow’s City Court on Wednesday, where the judges were considering an appeal on the extension of her arrest until May 13.
Savchenko has not been taken to the courtroom. She speaks in Ukrainian through an interpreter via video. She was wearing a T-shirt with the Ukrainian coat of arms.
Savchenko spoke confidently, but always sat with her hands on the table because of weakness due to her hunger strike. At times she rested her head on the table.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Savchenko was abducted by Russian-backed militants in the Donbas in the summer of 2014, and then taken to Russia, where she was charged with being involved in the death of Russian journalists. She was also charged with illegally crossing into Russia.
On October 26, during the early parliamentary elections in Ukraine, Savchenko was elected as an MP from the Batkivshyna Party. The Verkhovna Rada made Savchenko a member of the Ukrainian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
The Rada has called on international organizations and inter-parliamentary assemblies to make efforts to free Savchenko.
Savchenko went on hunger strike on December 15 in protest at being denied medicines she required.
On February 10, Moscow's Basmanny court extended the term of Savchenko’s arrest until May 13.
