Ukrainian General Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko on Thursday accused a lawmaker who became a national hero after being released from Russian jail of planning a terrorist attack targeting parliament.
"The investigation has irrefutable proof that Nadiya Savchenko … personally planned, personally recruited, personally gave instructions about how to commit a terrorist act here, in this chamber," Lutsenko told parliamentarians.
He claimed that Savchenko planned to use grenades and mortar launchers to destroy parliament and "finish off the survivors with automatic rifles."
Coup 'is rather expected'
Savchenko welcomed the allegations, saying she supports a military coup against President Petro Poroshenko and his government.
"They're good since I am an officer of the Ukrainian armed forces and … I swore an oath to the Ukrainian people to protect the Ukrainian land and certainly not the Ukrainian authorities," she said, according to Kiev-based Interfax Ukraine news agency.
Read more: Nadiya Savchenko: The thorn in Poroshenko's side?
"I know that there are a lot of servicemen who are listening to me, who absolutely agree with the view that a military coup in Ukraine is rather expected and probably a fairly correct development."
Porosheko's government has been accused of involvement in widespread corruption and attempting to amend anti-graft measures instituted under EU reforms.
Savchenko became a war hero while incarcerated in Russia for her confrontational behavior in the court room
Controversial figure
Savchenko, a former combat pilot in the Ukrainian military, rose to notoriety after she was captured on the frontline in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russia rebels have been waging an insurgency since 2014.
She was tried in Russia, where a court found her guilty of murdering two Russian journalists in war-torn eastern Ukraine. However, she was later released in May 2016 under a prisoner swap with Moscow.
Read more: 'Ukraine is paying for Europe's freedom,' says Savchenko
Upon her return to Ukraine, Savchenko was given a hero's welcome for her defiance in the face of Russian authorities. Afterward, she became a Ukrainian lawmaker who tended to contradict Poroshenko's policies.
Savchenko has continued to court controversy. Last year, Ukrainian lawmakers threatened an investigation into Savchenko for her involvement in anti-Ukrainian actions after she suggested Kyiv rein in its demands for Russia to handover Crimea, which it illegally annexed in 2014.
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Ukraine: Living on the front lines
Caught in the crossfire
Every evening, the shelling begins around sunset. The front lines near Donetsk see nightly mortar and machine gun fire as the conflict between the Ukrainian military and pro-Russian separatists’ rages on. Caught in the crossfire are many elderly civilians who are too impoverished to go elsewhere. Ivan Polansky, above, surveys the damage on his home in Zhovanka.
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Ukraine: Living on the front lines
‘Waiting for a shell’
Residents of Zhovanka in the so-called ‘gray zone,’ a thin strip of land separating warring militaries, line up to see a visiting doctor. Medics hold pop-up clinics in the town once a week. "Each day, you are waiting for the shell to land on your house and you never know when it’s going to come," said local resident Ludmila Studerikove.
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Ukraine: Living on the front lines
Without electricity and heating
Zhovanka was once home to 1,000 people, but the number has dwindled to about 200 since the war began in mid-2014. It has been three months since residents have had electricity and gas. "Sometimes I’m so scared that I lay in bed at night and just shake,” Studerikove said. “My husband stays by my side and holds my hand."
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Ukraine: Living on the front lines
Nowhere else to go
Olexander Voroshkov, program coordinator for the regional charity SOS Kramatorsk, said residents continue to live in half-destroyed homes with leaky roofs, even through the winters, because rent in nearby Ukrainian cities has skyrocketed since the beginning of the conflict. "Rents in Kramatorsk are now similar to those in Kiev, but the salaries are much lower than in Kiev," Voroshkov said.
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Ukraine: Living on the front lines
Reliance on humanitarian aid
Women line up to receive medicine and multivitamins in Zhovanka. Food and humanitarian supplies are delivered to the town by charity organizations, as crossing checkpoints sometimes requires people to wait more than a day in line. "We had everything; we had fresh air, nature. It was very nice here. Now we just have the cold," said local resident Vera Sharovarova.
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Ukraine: Living on the front lines
Adapting to DNR frontlines
Vera Anoshyna, left, speaks with neighbors in Spartak, a town in what is now the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR). Anoshyna said she has done her best to adapt to the conflict. "If you don’t have water, you find it," she said. "If you don’t have electricity, you find a solution. But you never know where the next bomb will land."
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Ukraine: Living on the front lines
Six broken ribs
Svetlana Zavadenko stands before her home in Spartak. She was injured when the walls collapsed after several mortars exploded in her yard. Neighbors had to dig Zavadenko out of the rubble and she was sent to the hospital with six broken ribs and a ruptured liver. She smokes “Minsk” brand cigarettes and laughs when asked what she thinks about the war.
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Ukraine: Living on the front lines
'We lost hope'
Zavadenko recovered from her injuries and lives alone with several pets. Spartak has not had electricity, gas, or water services since 2014, so she uses a grill to cook her food. For firewood, she goes to an abandoned furniture factory nearby and collects plywood. "Last winter we thought [the war] would finish, but now, honestly, we lost hope," she said.
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Ukraine: Living on the front lines
Possibility of a drawdown
Damage from shelling on the outskirts of Donetsk. Despite past failures in deescalating the war, a new ceasefire may be in sight after an October peace summit in Berlin, where Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he was ready to end hostilities in eastern Ukraine and would withdraw troops from the region.
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Ukraine: Living on the front lines
'We lost too many soldiers to stop now'
Even if both sides agree on a ceasefire, they will face opposition from their militaries, who claim their sacrifices were too heavy to simply put down their weapons. "We lost too many soldiers to stop now," said Vladimir Parkhamovich, colonel of the 81st Airmobile Brigade in the Ukrainian military. "If they give us an order [to stop] we’ll consider them traitors."
Author: Diego Cupolo
ls/kms (AFP, Reuters)
