Imprisoned Ukrainian pilot Savchenko nearing disability, doctors say

German doctors who examined Nadiya Savchenko, the Ukrainian pilot imprisoned in Russia, said she will reach the “point of no return” in her hunger fast on March 6-8, her lawyer Nikolay Polozov told a Russian radio station on March 2. “The experts concluded that after these days, she won’t be able to return to a normal life,” he said. “She will remain either disabled, or it will lead to a lethal result.” Savchenko’s hunger fast, in protest of her illegal incarceration, has reached 80 days. On March 2, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to free Savchenko.

Zenon Zawada: A pivotal political moment in the war between the Russian and Ukrainian governments is approaching. A single imprisoned pilot has the entire world watching as to whether Putin will demonstrate if there’s any humanity in him. On a political level, Savchenko’s potential death will play a major role in turning public opinion further against Putin and his cause. It would be a grand political miscalculation not to release her in one way or another, in our view, given that politics is about public perception, if not addressing the needs of humanity.