Here's a Savchenko update from our news desk:
Ukrainian Pilot Pledges Full Hunger Strike As Trial In Russia Nears End
A Ukrainian pilot who has been refusing food while on trial in Russia has threatened to go on full hunger strike unless she is extradited back home after the verdict.
Nadia Savchenko’s sister (Vira Savchenko) said on March 1 that if she was not returned home within 10 days after the ruling, she would start refusing to drink.
Closing arguments in Savchenko's trial are due to begin on March 2 and a verdict is expected soon after.
She is accused of involvement in the deaths of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine.
Savchenko was fighting in a volunteer battalion against Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine when she was captured in June 2014.
She has accused the separatists of kidnapping her and taking her into Russia where she was jailed and charged.
Kyiv says the charges against her are trumped up and that she should be treated as a prisoner of war.
Based on reporting by AP and uatoday.tv
Lawyer Says Yanukovych Wants To Return To Ukraine, Serve As President
A lawyer for Ukraine’s ousted former president, Viktor Yanukovych, says his client now wants to return to Ukraine and serve as its president.
Speaking in an interview with the Glavkom newspaper, lawyer Vitaly Sergyuk said Yanukovych intends “to return to Ukraine” from his exile in Russia and that “legal steps will be taken for this.”
Sergyuk maintains that Yanukovych did not relieve himself of his duties as president and opt out of ruling Ukraine.
The lawyer also maintains that the procedure to dismiss Yanukovych from office violated Ukraine’s constitution.
Yanukovych fled Ukraine in late February after months of protests against his rule turned violent, leaving scores of demonstrators in Kyiv dead.
A majority of 328 lawmakers in Ukraine’s 450-seat parliament voted on February 22, 2016, to remove Yanukovych from power, citing as grounds his abandonment of his office and the deaths of more than 80 protesters and police during the previous week.
Based on reporting by TASS and Glavkom