Ukrainians picket Russian embassy over jailed pilot

Hundreds of angry Ukrainians picketed Moscow's embassy in Kiev today as global calls grew for a hunger-striking helicopter pilot's release and return from Russia.
Nadia Savchenko, 34, is on trial for alleged involvement in the death of two Russian state television journalists in a mortar attack that came two months after Ukraine's pro-Moscow eastern revolt broke out in April 2014.
She faces up to 23 years in prison if convicted in a case that has drawn global attention and been attended by Western monitors concerned about Russia's record on human rights.
Savchenko denies the charges and has refused all food and drink since her hearing was adjourned last Thursday before she was given a chance to make a final statement.

Around 300 protesters gathered outside the Moscow mission holding up banners reading "(Russian President Vladimir) Putin will not break us" and "#FreeSavchenko" -- the Twitter hashtag used by her supporters worldwide.
"The Kremlin thought that this woman will submit to it and that it would thus be able to dictate its conditions to Ukraine," pensioner Volodymyr Marushchak told AFP.

"But Ukraine will remain free as long as it has people like Savchenko."
The pilot's case is seen by many Ukrainians as a symbol of resistance against what Kiev's pro-Western leaders view as Russia's aggression in the eastern industrial heartland of the former Soviet state.

The Ukrainian conflict has claimed the lives of more than 9,100 people and plunged Moscow's relations with the West to a post-Cold War low.
Russia rejects Ukrainian and Western charges of instigating and backing the unrest.
US Vice President Joe Biden added his voice to concern expressed by the European Union yesterday about Savchenko's fate.
"Nadiya has been unjustly imprisoned in Russia since 2014 -- detained and facing trial on trumped-up charges," Biden said in a statement issued today.
"Her unlawful continuing detention is a clear violation of Russia's commitment under the Minsk agreements, and she should be freed at once," he added in reference to a deal signed in the Belarussian capital aimed at ending Ukraine's separatist war.