28 Hostages of the Kremlyn

28 HOSTAGES OF THE KREMLIN
2. THE CASE OF NADIYA SAVCHENKO
Nadiya Savchenko participated in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) in the
East of Ukraine as a volunteer in the territorial defence battalion ‘Aydar’ and on
17 June, 2014, she was captured by militants of the self-proclaimed ‘People’s
Republic of Lugansk’ (PRL) near the village of Metalist (Lugansk Province).
On 8 July, 2014, it transpired that Nadiya Savchenko was in a detention facility in
Voronezh (Russia). The fact of the citizen of Ukraine’s ‘detention’ was reported to the
Embassy of Ukraine in the Russian Federation. The investigating authorities of the
Russian Federation officially announced that Savchenko was arrested on 30 June, 2014, in the
Russian Federation, where she had allegedly travelled of her own accord on 23 June, 2014 with
the intention of claiming asylum.
As Nadiya Savchenko later confirmed, she was covertly transferred to Russia on the night of
24 June, and for 7 days, she was forcibly held captive in a hotel in Voronezh. During that time
she was questioned repeatedly, including with the use of a polygraph. Interrogations were conducted
by investigator Dmitry Manshin personally, who later began to oversee a criminal case
against her. Interrogations of Savchenko were conducted without the presence of a lawyer. Thus,
Art. 56 and Art. 189 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were violated; under these articles, a
lawyer can be present during an interrogation if a witness expresses such a desire. The forcible
detention of Nadiya Savchenko without a warrant is, in fact, an illegal deprivation of liberty and
criminal offence under Russian law (Art. 127 of the CC of the RF).
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The fabricated report on the revealing of Nadiya Savchenko on the territory of the
Russian Federation