Former Ukrainian aiforce navigator on trial in Russia goes on "dry" hunger strike — lawyer

MOSCOW, March 9. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told his Ukrainian counterpart Pavlo Klimkin that insolent behavior of the former Ukrainian soldier Nadezhda Savchenko in court made the Ukrainian doctors' visit to her impossible, Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday after the telephone talk requested by the Ukrainian side.

Klimkin raised a question about a visit of Ukrainian doctors to Savchenko for a medical examination, the statement said.

"Klimkin was told that the Russian side had taken steps to grant a petition on Ukrainian doctors’ visit to Savchenko as an exception, proceeding from principles of humanism," it reads.

"A judge of the Donetsk city court [in southern Russia — TASS], where the criminal case against Savchenko is being heard, was going to permit Ukrainian physicians to visit the defendant on March 9," the ministry said. "However, Savchenko's defiant conduct during the hearing and her abusive remarks towards the court have changed the situation, making such a visit impossible."