Poroshenko says he's willing to exchange prisoners to gain Savchenko's release:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said he is ready to secure the release of celebrated Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko through a prisoner exchange with Russia.
The Russian trial of Savchenko on allegations that she aided the 2014 killing of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine wrapped up on March 9.
She rejects the charges and has been on a hunger strike since March 3 to protest her detention.
"If you ask me if an exchange is possible I would tell you 'yes' for the first time, using my constitutional right," Poroshenko said in Ankara on March 9 after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
But he added that Russia has not come up with "any satisfactory initiative" for such a swap.
Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said talks on a prisoner exchange could not take place "in theory or in practice" until the verdict, which is expected on March 21.
Savchenko's detention and hunger strike provoked an outpouring of protests in Ukraine and Russia on March 9 and prompted world leaders to call for her immediate release. (AFP, TASS)
This ends our live blogging for March 9. Be sure to check back for our continuing coverage tomorrow.
Protesters across Ukraine continue to demand Savchenko's release, our Ukrainian Service reports:
Protesters across Ukraine have continued to demand the release of Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko from Russian custody.
Police in the Black Sea port city of Odesa used tear gas to disperse hundreds of demonstrators on March 9 after they pelted the Russian Consulate with eggs and painted the building's door red.
Protesters in Odesa also burned an effigy of Russian President Vladimir Putin in front of the consulate.
In the western city of Lviv, about 200 protesters threw eggs, stones, and small bottles of iodine at the Russian Consulate -- leaving difficult-to-remove brown stains on the building.
Demonstrators also threw paper planes with the inscription "Free Savchenko."
A smoke bomb was also thrown onto the Russian Consulate grounds in Lviv.
Protests calling for Savchenko's release were also held in Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Cherkasy, and other Ukrainian cities.
A Russian court in the far northern Komi Republic has accepted that Gennady Afanasyev must not be held in a prison 2, 700 kilometres from his family. This unexpectedly positive move comes as fellow Crimean political prisoner Oleg Sentsov is being taken to the far eastern Yakutia region of Russia, and Oleksandr Kolchenko has reached a notorious prison in the Chelyabinsk region. All three men, together with Oleksy Chirniy, opposed Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea. They were all arrested in May 2014 and received long sentences on trumped-up charges in a case condemned by Russian human rights activists and the international community as politically motivated.
Gennady Afanasyev’s application dates back to January 2016. At a court hearing on Jan 12, the Syktykvar City Court ordered the Russian penitentiary service to explain why Afanasyev had been moved 2700 kilometres from Crimea, where his mother lives.
This is in breach of Russia law and of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, regarding the right to family life. During the hearing, the penitentiary service official was rather lost for an explanation, and couldn’t come up with anything better than that there had been a place free in the Komi Republic. Read On