"We have at the moment different sanctions in relation with Europe-Russian Federation…When now some parliamentarians ask for further sanctions regarding Savchenko, then it [will] bring us only more far away [from] a good solution, in a humanitarian spirit," Stefan Schennach from the Social Democratic Party of Austria said.
Schennach, who headed the monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) when the European Union imposed sanctions on Russia, noted that Savchenko should be returned to Ukraine, while an international investigation was needed.
He stressed that whenever the sanctions are imposed, they should be the last step "in a political death end-road" and should not be "a tool in political discourse."
Savchenko is suspected of helping to direct artillery fire near the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk on June 17, 2014, which led to the death of two Russia journalists, Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin. In February, a state prosecutor requested to sentence Savchenko to 23 years in prison. Savchenko denies all the allegations.
