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Freed Savchenko to Start Work in Defense Committee

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (L) looks at Nadezhda Savchenko during their meting in the Presidential Office in Kiev, Ukraine. Efrem Lukatsky / AP

Former Ukrainian military pilot Nadiya Savchenko has been appointed to the Ukrainian parliament's Committee on National Security and Defense, Ukrainian television channel 112 reported Thursday.

Savchenko was elected as a deputy for Ukranian political party Batkivshchina in 2014. She attended a parliamentary fraction talks straight after her meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and asked for assistance in starting work as soon as possible, said fellow Batkivshchina deputy Ivan Krulko. She is expected to begin work on May 31.

Savchenko was freed yesterday after two years in captivity in Russia, where she had been found guilty of involvement in the death of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine.

She was pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin and exchanged for Russian soldiers Alexander Alexandrov and Evgeny Yerofeyev.

A Kiev court had convicted the service men of fighting in Ukraine's Donbas conflict zone and sentenced them to 14 years in prison on terrorism charges.

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