Captured Ukrainian pilot defies Russian judge

MOSCOW: A Ukrainian pilot held in Russia over the death of two Russian journalists during separatist fighting in eastern Ukraine climbed onto a table and flashed an obscene gesture at a judge at the end of her trial on Wednesday.
Nadezhda Savchenko (pix), 34, who faces up to 25 years jail if found guilty, has become a hero for many in Ukraine resentful of what they see as Kremlin backing for pro-Russian insurgents trying to break Kiev's control over eastern territories.
Her lawyer, Nikolai Polozov, said she had suffered heart problems and fever since beginning a hunger strike last week in protest at what she called a show trial.
Her life, he said, was in danger and she needed the attention of Ukrainian doctors.
"I don't accept my guilt or recognise the sentence of a Russian court," Savchenko said in the courtroom, according to a translation from Ukrainian read out by one of her lawyers.
An online broadcast from the courtroom showed her climbing onto a bench in the cage for defendants to raise her middle finger at the judge.
Helicopter pilot Savchenko was captured in eastern Ukraine in 2014 during fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Moscow separatists and handed over to the Russian authorities. It remains unclear how she was brought across the border to Russia. – Reuters