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MOSCOW — A Kremlin spokesman says Vladimir Putin is resisting President Barack Obama’s call for Russia to release a Ukrainian pilot who is on trial over the death of two Russian journalists.

Nadezhda Savchenko was fighting with a Ukrainian volunteer brigade against Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine when she was captured in June 2014.

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Russia says she was a spotter who called in co-ordinates for a mortar attack that killed two journalists and several civilians. A verdict is expected Monday in her trial on charges of accessory to murder.

A senior Obama administration official has said the U.S. president urged Savchenko’s release in a phone call with Putin on Monday.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Russian president, said Thursday Putin told Obama that “interference in our courts isn’t permissible and not possible.”

Savchenko’s case has sparked anger at home and sharp criticism from the West since her detention while fighting with Ukrainian volunteers against Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine.