Kremlin: Too early to predict outcome of ex-pilot trial, her possible handover to Ukraine

DONETSK, November 11. /TASS/. The court of the city of Donetsk in the Russian southern Rostov region will hear into the case of former Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko till the end of December, lawyer Mark Feygin twitted in his microblog on Wednesday.

According to Feygin, court hearings will take place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays till December 24.

The trials of Savchenko’s case, which began on September 22, took place in the Donetsk city court earlier on Wednesday.

Russian investigators say Savchenko, a Ukrainian forces officer, joined the Aidar militant battalion and in June of last year was conducting covert surveillance and direction of artillery bombarding targetting a checkpoint near Metallist settlement in eastern Ukraine's self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic. The settlement was full of civilians, including three Russian journalists.

As a result, two Russian journalists — Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin — from the All-Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network (VGTRK) died in the shelling.