VORONEZH, July 18 (RAPSI) – The attorneys of Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda (Nadiya) Savchenko, who is awaiting trial in Russia on charges of complicity in the murder of Russian journalists in Ukraine, have requested that Russia’s Investigative Committee open a case on kidnapping, attorney Nikolai Polozov told RIA Novosti on Friday.

The Novousmansky District Court in the Voronezh Region ruled on July 2 to extend Savchenko’s arrest until the end of August.

Savchenko, 33, is a Ukrainian pilot who called in artillery fire via radio. She was seized by anti-Maidan fighters in June but, according to the independence supporters in the Lugansk area, managed to escape. Later she was detained in Russia, which she allegedly entered as a refugee, and charged with complicity in the murder of Russian journalists.

The pilot’s attorneys say she was not actively involved in the military operations.

The defense team and Ukrainian Consul Hennadiy Breskalenko visited Savchenko at the pretrial detention center on July 16. They said she told them that she was forcibly transported to Russia in handcuffs and with a sack over her head after being captured near Lugansk on June 18.

Her attorneys have appealed against Savchenko’s arrest.

Vesti correspondent Igor Kornelyuk and sound engineer Anton Voloshin were killed on June 17 in a mortar attack in the vicinity of Metallist and Mirny, small towns near Lugansk in eastern Ukraine. They were buried at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery in Moscow.