US Ambassador to UN Claims Savchenko Trial Violates Minsk Accords

US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power claims that Russia’s detention and trial of Ukrainian citizen Nadezhda Savchenko violates Moscow’s commitment to international agreements.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Russia’s detention and trial of Ukrainian citizen Nadezhda Savchenko violates Moscow’s commitment to international agreements intended to end fighting between Ukraine’s government and militias in the southeast, US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said in a statement.

"Russia’s continued detention of Savchenko demonstrates blatant disregard for its commitments under the Minsk agreements. Savchenko – as well as all Ukrainians who are being held illegally by separatists and by Russia — should be free," Power said on Tuesday.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Tuesday that the case of Savchenko, accused of the murder of Russian journalists in Donbass, is not mentioned in the Minsk agreements on Ukraine’s reconciliation.

Savchenko is suspected of helping to direct artillery fire near the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk on June 17, 2014, that led to the death of two Russia journalists, Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin. Earlier in February, a state prosecutor requested a court to sentence Savchenko to 23 years in prison. Savchenko denies all the allegations.