Nadiya Savchenko

Political career

In the October 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Savchenko was placed first on the party list of Batkivshchyna. (In a June 2016 interview with Radio Free Europe, she stated that the party wasn't her first choice, but it "isn't the worst").

On 6 November 2015, Savchenko's first draft law was introduced to Ukrainian parliament, while she was imprisoned in Russia, and was later passed into legislation.

On 27 May 2016, after returning from Russia in a prisoner exchange, Savchenko said she was prepared to become President of Ukraine if Ukrainians wished.

In 2016, Savchenko left Batkivshchyna, but remained a member of its parliamentary faction. This was announced on 12 December 2016 right after Savchenko had admitted she had recently held a secret meeting with separatist leaders Aleksandr Zakharchenko (of the Donetsk People's Republic) and Igor Plotnitsky (of the Luhansk People's Republic) in Minsk. On 15 December 2016, Batkivshchyna expelled Savchenko from its parliamentary faction in response to her Minsk meeting with Zakharchenko and Plotnitsky. The party saw this meeting as "negotiations with terrorists" and "adamantly opposed" it. #tag:ref|On 16 December 2016 Batkivshchyna declared it would not use the Imperative mandate (depriving her parliamentary seat) against Savchenko. Faction leader Yulia Tymoshenko stated the party did not regret putting Savchenko in its electoral list for the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, because "then we needed to rescue Ukraine's patriot from prison of the occupying country." On 27 December 2016, Savchenko established the Civic Platform RUNA (an acronym for Ukrainian People's Revolution). According to Savchenko RUNA would not be a "political project" but rather a "mechanism" and a "natural association of people" who do not follow "populist slogans." The same month she stated her intent to take part in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election.

On 15 March 2018, the Attorney General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko charged Savchenko with preparing a terrorist attack on the Ukrainian parliament. On 22 March 2018, parliament stripped Savchenko of her parliamentary immunity and allowed her arrest. That same day she was arrested on suspicion of planning an assault on the parliament and supporting a coup d'état. Savchenko said she did not plan any terrorist attack, but instead talked with undercover Ukrainian government agent provocateurs who sought to discredit her. She was released from detention on 15 April 2019.

Savchenko took part as a candidate in 2019 Ukrainian presidential elections and 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary elections, but she was not elected.