Lawyer concerned by health of Savchenko during hunger strike

Lawyer Nikolai Polozov said in a tweet on January 12 that Savchenko had lost 15 kilograms since she started a hunger strike on December 17. Polozov also said she feels pains in her stomach and heavy nausea. Savchenko launched the hunger strike to protest a Donietsk city court's decision in Russia's Rostov region to prolong her detention until April 16. Russian prosecution charges her with complicity in the deaths of two Russian journalists covering the eastern Ukraine conflict that were killed by artillery fire in 2014. Savchenko denies the accusations, saying she was kidnapped and forcibly brought to Russia in July 2014. Savchenko has spent over a year in custody in Russia, during which time she has already protested her detention by going on a hunger strike that lasted over 80 days. She was elected to Ukrainian parliament in absentia, and became a delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. International community has continuously called for the release of Savchenko, calling her trial politically motivated.