‘Laughable’: US rejects a proposal to exchange Nadiya Savchenko for the ‘Lord of War’
US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt has denied reports earlier today that Russia might exchange imprisoned Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko for two Russian citizens now jailed in the United States.
“The proposal for an exchange is simply laughable. Savchenko is being held illegally in Russia. She was captured illegally, and according to the Minsk accords she must be freed. Period,” Pyatt said.
According to earlier reports today, negotiations were underway between Moscow and Washington for the release of Ukrainian military helicopter pilot Nadiya Savchenko, who was recently sentenced by a Russian court to 22 years in prison. The list of Russians who might be exchanged for Savchenko was a group that included Viktor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko, according to the news agency Interfax.
Bout and Yaroshenko are both serving prison terms in the United States.
Along with Bout and Yaroshenko, the list alledgedly included “Russians whose activities are not publicly reported,” said one of the sources for Interfax.
Savchenko's lawyer, Mark Feigin, told Interfax he was unaware of any exchange negotiations that included Viktor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko. If any such negotiations did indeed take place, the lawyer assumed they may have been discussed during US Secretary of State John Kerry's recent visit to Moscow.
On March 22nd, Ukrainian military helicopter pilot Nadezha Savchenko was sentenced by a Russian court to 22 years in prison for her role in the murder of two Russian journalists, Igor Korneliuk and Anton Voloshin, and for her repeated illegal crossings of the Russia–Ukraine border.
In 2011, Russian citizen Viktor Bout was sentenced by a US court to a 25 year prison sentence for his participation in illegal arms trades. The 2005 movie “Lord of War” is partly based on Bout's exploits.
In 2013, Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot, was sentenced to 20 years by US courts for attempting to smuggle a large amount of cocaine.