MOSCOW — Prosecutors in southern Russia rested their case on Wednesday in the trial of a Ukrainian military pilot, asking for a lengthy sentence in the drawn out and highly publicized proceedings.

The request to the judge for a 23-year prison term for the pilot, Nadiya V. Savchenko, suggested that the trial, the most talked about in Russia since the prosecution of members of the punk protest group Pussy Riot in 2012, could be drawing to a close.

Ms. Savchenko, 34, is charged with murder in connection with the deaths of two Russian journalists who were reporting from eastern Ukraine.

Image Nadiya V. Savchenko during an appearance in court in the southern Russian town of Donetsk on Wednesday. In their closing arguments, Russian prosecutors on Wednesday asked the judge to give Ms. Savchenko 23 years in prison. Credit... Sergei Venyavsky/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Many of the details of the case are disputed, but it has potent political symbolism for both sides of the conflict.