Kiev demands release of Ukrainian pilot from Russia

Kiev/Moscow, July 9 (IANS) Ukraine took all possible measures to free its military pilot captured by insurgents, who was reportedly transported to Russia, Ukraine's Prosecutor General Vitaly Yarema said Wednesday.

"Ukrainian law enforcement agencies do not know how Nadezhda Savchenko was brought to Russia," Yarema told reporters.

Savchenko, the 31-year-old female pilot, was captured in June by insurgents near the town of Shchastye, north of Lugansk city, Xinhua reported citing the Interfax news agency.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has instructed the prosecutor general's office and the foreign ministry to look into the case.

The Ukrainian foreign ministry "categorically condemned" the reported "illegal transfer" of the Ukrainian citizen to Russia.

The ministry demanded that Russia provide all related information immediately and hoped Russia would release Savchenko, while calling on the international community "to condemn Russia's unlawful actions".

In Moscow, Vladimir Markin, spokesman of the Russian Investigative Committee, said that the pilot was charged with implication in killings of Russian journalists, as she acted as an artillery spotter when a Russian television crew from the All-Russia State Television and Radio Company (VGTRK) was shelled by Ukrainian mortars.

Markin said that Savchenko was being held at a detention facility in Voronezh, central Russia.