ATHENS - The pardoning of Ukrainian military pilot Nadia Savchenko has no relation to the Minsk Agreements, as she was pardoned in response to a request by the relatives of the journalists who died in eastern Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
“This has nothing to do with the Minsk Agreements, because the Minsk Agreements say about individuals held in Donbas and in Ukraine, those taken away from the Donbas territory,” Putin said at a press conference following negotiations with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday.
Putin said one of the dead journalists’ widow and sister had asked him to pardon Savchenko.
“As a matter of fact, this is what was the basis (for the pardon), this is what counts most,” Putin said.
Putin said he had been discussing Savchenko’s pardoning and her return home with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for quite a long time.
“The first problem that we faced in this respect was to return to Russia the two Russian citizens convicted by a Ukrainian court and held in a penitentiary in Ukraine at the time,” Putin said.
“Second. I could not have made this decision without knowing the opinion of the close relatives of our deceased guys, the deceased journalists,” he said.
