MOSCOW - A Ukrainian air force pilot, whose plane was shot down in eastern Ukraine during fighting, has been arrested in Russia and charged with killing two Russian journalists, Russian officials said on Wednesday. Ukraine has been rocked by fighting between pro-Russia rebels and government forces for over three months. The two Russian state-owned TV channel employees died in June after being hit by mortar fire in the Ukrainian city of Luhansk.
Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement Wednesday that 31-year-old pilot Nadezhda Savchenko is suspected of tipping off Ukrainian troops to the whereabouts of the journalists who were in a rebel-held area. Savchenko is now in a Russian detention center but it's unclear how she got there. Moscow insists she crossed the border voluntarily, without documents and under the guise of a refugee. Ukraine, however, raised the alarm a while ago about her disappearance. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, was quoted as saying Wednesday that Savchenko had been kidnapped and the president has asked all authorities to work for her return.
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