21/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - European Council calls for release of Nadiya Savchenko. At the request of EU leaders meeting in the European Council in Brussels on 17 and 18 March, European Council President Donald Tusk called on Friday 18 March for the release of Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko who is being detained in Russia. “We discussed this issue among leaders and I was asked to express the EU position that calls for the immediate release of Nadiya Savchenko along with (film maker) Oleg Sentsov and all other Ukrainian citizens held in illegal detention”, said Tusk at the press conference after the European Council. No written reference was made to Savchenko in the Council conclusions, however. On Monday 21 March, a Russian judge declared Savchenko “complicit” in the killing of two Russian journalists. The prosecution has called for her to be jailed for 23 years. As we went to press, the sentence had not been delivered. Elsewhere, the EU-Ukraine summit is due to take place on 19 May 2016. (CG)