Germany tells Russia to 'immediately release' Ukraine pilot
Source: AFP
Berlin (AFP) - Berlin on Wednesday called for the immediate release of Ukrainian military pilot Nadiya Savchenko, saying her trial in Russia went against a peace deal aimed at ending a separatist war in Ukraine.
"The trial against Savchenko violates the spirit and letter of the Minsk agreement, we are therefore making a joint call with our partners for the immediate release of Nadiya Savchenko on humanitarian grounds," government spokesman Steffen Seibert said, referring to a clause in the accord that requires Ukraine and Russia to swap prisoners and hostages.
Germany was following the trial closely, Seibert said, underlining concerns over how Savchenko had been treated since her detention in June 2014.
Referring to Savchenko's hunger strike, Seibert said there were serious concerns over her health condition as well as over her imprisonment including solitary confinement, when she was also subjected to "questionable interrogation methods that violated international standards".
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/germany-tells-russia-immediately-release-ukraine-pilot-002431577.html
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had a hearing on Wednesday and what she called her "final statement" before leaving was to stand up on a chair and give the judge one of these:
(Story seen on France24.)
She is a member of the Aidar Battalion, a right wing group:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aidar_Battalion
She was arrested in the Ukraine and then turned over to the Russians for being involved in a mortar attack that killed two Russian Journalists. The Ukrainians says the two Journalists were NOT official journalists (mostly because they were reporting from the pro Russian rebels NOT from the Ukrainian side) and thus the charges are bogus for the two journalists deserved no more protection then anyone else in the area in revolt. Russia says the attack was to kill the two journalists, she was a forward observer for the mortar unit that dropped the shells on the two journalists. The Ukrainians said the attack was one hour after she was already in the hands of the rebels (and there is some evidence of this) but being a former 13 B (artillery Soldier) she could have reported the location before the mortar was set up and thus the delay was setting up the mortar that subsequently dropped shells on the position the two two journalists were at.
Russia is now saying she voluntary crossed into Russia, something she denies, but "Voluntary" is a broad term even in the US (i.e if you could have said NO but did not when someone pushed you into the car and drove you across the border, your sitting peacefully in the back seat of the car in handcuffs can be called "Voluntary"
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Another factor is Savchenko insists on using Ukrainian, thus her use of the Ukrainian phase for "I don't want to go" which in Ukrainian is "Я не хочу йти" but in Russian is "Я не хочу идти" could be why the Russian guards said she did not object to the move. Я is the same sound in both languages (The English sound of "Ja"
. не is the same in both languages (translated as "NO" but in Russian it would be pronounced (using the Latin Alphabet) as "Nye" in Ukrainian "Ne". хочу is the same in both languages. X is pronounced in English as "Ch". "O" is slightly different pronunciation in Ukrainian and Russia, ч is the "ts" sound in English on both languages. уis the "ch" sound in English. й is the English J sound in English, и is transliterated in y in English if it is Ukrainian, but I if it is Russian. T is transliterated as T in English from both languages.
Thus the Ukrainian "Я не хочу йти", if this was the English (Latin) alphabet would be "Ja Ne khotschu jti". But in Russian it would be pronounced "Ja Nye chotschu idti". Close enough for most people to understand, but different enough to say they could not understand her when they did not want to.
https://translate.google.com/?tl=uk#ru/uk/nyet
http://www.lexilogos.com/russe_alphabet_cyrillique.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_alphabet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_alphabet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_alphabet
Ukrainian and Russian are NOT that different, more different dialects then actual different languages. Individual words a person may have a hard time with, but most speakers of either languages can follow most sentences.
