When Nadiya Savchenko was released from Russian captivity in May 2016, she emerged onto the Ukrainian political scene as a fully formed national hero. The homecoming of the former army pilot—a brave soldier who was captured in eastern Ukraine, sentenced on trumped-up murder charges by the Kremlin, and endured a hunger strike in a protest against Putin’s war—became an occasion for a rare celebration of unity in a country that was desperately starved for it. Savchenko was granted a seat in Parliament, earned accolades from across the political spectrum, and was celebrated in the press as Ukraine’s very own …read more
Source: The American Interest
