SYMBOL OF RESISTANCESavchenko, a military pilot, volunteered to fight with a ground unit against pro-Moscow separatists who rose up against Kiev's rule in eastern Ukraine. Soon after, pro-Moscow separatists began an armed separatist rebellion in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, an area with a large-Russian speaking community. "A presidential plane with Ukraine's hero Nadiya Savchenko has landed," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a post on Twitter. Ukraine accused them of being Russian special forces officers fighting in eastern Ukraine, though Moscow has never acknowledged the two were following its orders. Ukrainian military pilot Nadezhda Savchenko looks out from a defendants' cage as she attends a court hearing in Moscow March 4, 2015.

Source: Huffington Post May 25, 2016 07:03 UTC