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Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko on Monday discussed the fate of a hunger-striking Ukrainian pilot jailed in Russia and two Russians captured and tried in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.
“The issue of Nadezhda Savchenko as well as the fate of Russian nationals Aleksander Aleksandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev has been touched upon,” the Kremlin said following the phone call, referring to the Ukrainian pilot by the Russian version of her first name.
Poroshenko has previously proposed swapping Savchenko for the Russians, who were sentenced Monday to 14 years in prison for fighting in Ukraine’s rebel east.
The Kremlin said the two leaders had agreed that Moscow would “soon” allow Ukraine’s consul general to visit Savchenko in prison.
In a separate statement issued by Kiev, Poroshenko said that Ukraine had urged Moscow to “immediately” free Savchenko, who was last month sentenced to 22 years in prison by a Russian court for her alleged involvement in the killing of two Russian reporters in the war zone.
Citing Savchenko’s deteriorating health, Poroshenko also urged Moscow to allow Ukrainian and German doctors to examine her, Poroshenko’s office said.
The Ukrainian presidency confirmed that the fate of Yerofeyev and Aleksandrov had been discussed but no details were provided.
Kiev insists the duo were serving as members of an elite Russian military intelligence unit when they were captured in the pro-Moscow separatist region of Lugansk in May 2015.
Russia says both had resigned from active duty before crossing into the war zone of their own free will.
Monday’s verdict against the pair said they were guilty of participating in “an aggressive war” against Ukraine and committing “a terrorist attack”.
Many observers have doubted that the Russian pair will serve their sentences in Ukraine, with the verdict seen as a potential step towards a much-anticipated prisoner exchange for Savchenko.
Savchenko — who has become a national hero at home — began refusing all food and liquids in protest at her sentence on April 6 and her health is believed to be deteriorating rapidly.
Putin had said Thursday that Moscow was in contact with Kiev over a possible prisoner exchange for Savchenko, who says she was smuggled illegally into Russia to face trial there.
Such an exchange is complicated by Savchenko’s continued denial of any wrongdoing. Russian law says that foreign convicts may only be sent home to serve their time once they confess.
The two trials have driven another wedge between Moscow and Kiev, with the two sides locked in a bitter feud over Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and alleged responsibility for the war in east Ukraine that has left nearly 9,200 people dead.