Free Savchenko: Open letter to European leaders

We appeal to you to take emergency measures with the goal of the immediate and unconditional release of 34-year-old Nadia Savchenko, a Ukrainian citizen, kidnapped and imprisoned for more than twenty months in the Russian Federation.

The Russian authorities have made a mockery of civil rights, international law, and their own Constitution. They show disdain for the international community and the Minsk Protocol alike.

So far, all efforts of the international community have proven unsuccessful. On March 4, in protest against the proceedings of the Russian court, Nadia Savchenko announced a full hunger strike, refusing even liquids.

Our ability to save her life will test the effectiveness of international diplomacy and our commitment to European values.

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The letter has been initiated by Ola Hnatiuk, a Ukrainian / Polish intellectual, historian and writer

It is already signed by over 2000 people, including the following prominent artists, politicians and inttellectuals:

Svitlana Aleksievich, writer, Nobel Prize Winner in Literature (Belarus)

Yuriy Andrukhovych, writer (Ukraine)

Petras Austrevicius, Member if the European Parliament ALDE Vice President (Lithuania)

Viacheslav Brukhovetsky, honorary president of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Ukraine)

Bogumiła Berdychowska, writer and critic (Poland)

Pascal Bruckner, philosopher (France)

Viola von Cramon (MP of the Bundestag, 2009-2013)

Adriaan van Dis, writer (Netherlands)

Lubos Dobrovsky, minister at Vaclav Havel Presidency, former Ambassador of Czech Repbulic to Russian Federation (Czech Republic)

Elfriede Jelinek, writer, Nobel prize in Literature (Austria)

Mikhail Epstein, Professor of Cultural Theory and Russian Literature, Emory University, Atlanta, USA

o. Borys Gudziak, bishop of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (France)

Tomas Halik, professor Karl University (Czech Republic)

Ola Hnatiuk (Poland)

Borys Khersonsky, poet (Ukraine)

Gidon Kremer, violinist and founder of Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra

Michael Krüger,writer,President of the Bavarian Academy of the Fine Arts in München (Germany)

Andriy Kurkov, writer (Ukraine)

Philippe de Lara, philosopher (France)

Bernard-Henri Lévy, philosopher (France)

Myroslav Marynovych, dissident, vice-rector of Ukrainian Catholic University (Ukraine)

Peter Pomerantsev, journalist (UK)

Katharina Raabe, Editor Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin (Germany)

Mykola Riabchuk, writer, Ukrainian PEN-club (Ukraine)

Oleksandr Roitburt, artist (Ukraine)

Karl Schlögel, prof. em. for East European History, Berlin (Germany)

Monika Sznajderman, director of publishing house Czarne (Poland)

Victor Shenderovich, writer (Russia)

Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the European Parliament, former Prime Minister of Belgium (Belgium)

Ludmila Ulitskaya, writer (Russia)

Yevhen Zakharow, director of Kharkiv Human Rights Group (Ukraine)

Serhiy Zhadan, writer (Ukraine)