Russia’s Ukrainian POW allegedly ends hunger strike

Nadezhda Savchenko has agreed to suspend her hunger strike and start eating chicken soup, according to Russian prison officials. Savchenko is the Ukrainian soldier now on trial in Russia for allegedly aiding and abetting the murder of Russian journalists and illegally crossing the border into Russia. She has been refusing to eat since mid-December 2014. Officials say she will remain under the supervision of doctors, and continue to receive the appropriate dietary supplements.

Savchenko’s lawyer, Mark Feygin, told reporters that he had no information about her ending the hunger strike. 

Prison officials told news agency TASS, “today, the accused, Nadezhda Savchenko, agreed to defer to doctors’ recommendations and begin eating chicken soup.”

On March 3, Feygin said Savchenko had promised to end her hunger strike, if it started to threaten her health.

See also: 'The Savchenko case' A five-paragraph summary of the most critical Russian-Ukranian trial