Pilot Nadezhda Savchenko

33-year-old pilot Nadezhda Savchenko was abducted by separatists and taken to the territory of neighbouring Russia in mid-summer 2014.

While in the Anti-Terrorist Operation zone, Nadezhda, together with fighters from the Aidar battalion, went to assist wounded reconnaissance officers. A firefight broke out during which the fighters suffered casualties, and the woman herself was taken prisoner.

Later, the separatists released a video of Savchenko's interrogation, showing how bravely this fragile woman held her ground.

A few weeks later, Nadezhda was already on Russian territory, where on 9 July 2014 the Investigative Committee charged her with being an accomplice in the murder of VGTRK employees Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Volyshin.

In November 2014, Nadezhda was elected a People's Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine from the Batkivshchyna party.

To date, Nadezhda Savchenko is being held in a Russian pre-trial detention centre, where she has been on hunger strike for 66 days.