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Poroshenko Calls on Putin to Release Ukrainian Pilot Detained in Russia

Ukrainian President Poroshenko answers a TV journalist's question in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos, Jan. 21, 2015.

WARSAW — Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has sent a letter to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin demanding the release of jailed Ukrainian military pilot Nadia Savchenko, captured by separatists last year, Poroshenko has said.

"I sent a letter to Putin a day before yesterday. Also one of the key elements of this letter was not only a cease-fire, … but also a release of Nadia Savchenko," Poroshenko told Polish broadcaster TVN Biznes i Swiat.

Savchenko, 33, was captured by separatists in eastern Ukraine last June and sent to Russia where she had been held in a psychiatric clinic before being transferred to a prison. On Monday her lawyer said she is on a hunger strike and may die in detention.

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