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Jailed Ukrainian Pilot Savchenko Declares Hunger Strike in Moscow, Lawyer Says

Ukrainian army pilot Nadezhda (Nadia) Savchenko looks out from a defendants' cage as she attends a court hearing in Moscow, on Nov. 11, 2014.

Ukrainian military pilot Nadia Savchenko has declared a hunger strike after Russian jail officials refused to let a doctor treat her for an ear infection, her lawyer said.

Savchenko announced her hunger strike during a video call with a courthouse on Monday, lawyer Ilya Novikov said in a Facebook message. He added in a Twitter post that his client had been refusing food since Saturday.

The 33-year-old pilot is suffering from an ear inflammation and has lost hearing in her right ear, according to Novikov. But officials at the Moscow jail where she is being held have declined to let a doctor see her, he said on his Facebook page.

Moscow accuses Savchenko of involvement in the deaths of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine earlier this year.

The 33-year-old pilot, who was captured by pro-Moscow separatists and sent to Russia, has since been elected in absentia to Ukraine's parliament.

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