The court of the Russian town of Donetsk has recently sentenced her to 22 years, but the key witness who drops all charges has never been heard. Now, for the first time, he says how things went.
His nom de guerre is Ilim. That’s al he said to Ilya Azar, the Meduza reporter who interviewed him. But it takes just a quick search on the Mitrovorets database, the Sbu program that records over 8,000 fighters separatist files, to find out that his name is Andrej Tikhonov, a deputy commander of the regiment of the separatist forces of Luhansk, aged 50 and born in Kharkiv.
Andrej “Ilim” Tikhonov fought in the Battle of Stukalova Balka, near Luhansk, June 17, 2014, when Nadiya Savchenko was captured by separatist militias. In the long interview he tells how things went.
The LNR position was at the intersection between Stukalova Balka and Metalist, where the two journalists of the Russian channel VGTRK, Kornelyuk and Igor Anton Voloshin, were killed by mortar fire, for whose death Nadiya was sentenced. The Ukrainian army launched an attack at the separatists position with a tank and two Btr, but the anti-tank nests manage to fight them off. A few minutes later there was a second attack, also repelled with RPG. Tikhonov and his men took took possession of Ukrainian armored vehicles and lined them up on the road. “At this point, a light blue Ford Fiesta started driving up to our position. It stopped about 100 yards short of us, and out stepped a person in uniform. We approached the car. Inside the vehicle there were two men. They had seen the tanks on the road and they thought the Ukrainians had won. While this went on, the person in uniform turned out to be a young woman. I asked what her name was. When she said nothing, I hit her over the head with the butt of his gun. Then she said, ‘Nadiya’”.
When the reporter asks why he did not kill her on the spot, Tikhonov is clear. “I don’t kill prisoners. But I would have killed her if I’d known they would make her into a heroine and elect her into the Rada. But hindsight is always 20/20”.
The story that contradicts the Russian court
Timing is important, and Tikhonov has a good memory. “The battle began around eight in the morning, and by noon I personally had already handed over Savchenko to LNR Defense Minister Igor Plotnitsky. It all happened in like four hours—that much I can guarantee you”.
According to the reconstruction made by Tikhonov, the two Russian journalists arrived on the spot when Nadiya had already been taken away. “It was at this time that the Metalist civilian population started leaving their homes under a white flag, frightened by all the artillery and gunfire. Our guys went to withdraw the civilians under bombardment to Luhansk and the journalists were following them, and it was at this time that a mortar nailed the journalists. It had been an hour since we detained her”.
The Russian prosecutor said instead that Nadiya, stationed on a tower nearby, reported the coordinates of the enemy position, knowing civilians were there. The story of a direct witness, however, contradicts the accusation.
Nevertheless, Tikhonov has clear ideas about the trial. “Listen, saying that she coordinated a strike on two journalists is a political call. Who sends six snipers to spot an attack on journalists? Nadiya couldn’t have seen it herself, but what difference does that make? “
The Russian version
Nadiya Savchenko was captured by separatist in the east of Ukraine and imprisoned in Lugansk. There were no information about her faith, until she re-appeared in the court of Voronezh, Russia. She is now accused of murder and illegal immigration. According to the Russian Investigative Committee, a kind of superpower of attorney directly subordinate to the Kremlin, Nadiya – a professional soldier of the Ukrainian army, an anti-tank helicopter co-pilot – would have run away from her own fellow soldiers seeking refuge in Russia. There, police found her without documents during a random control and arrested her for illegal immigration. Only later, the Russian police would have realized whom they had in their hands. Therefore, she was charged with the murder of Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin.
Since then, Nadiya, he never stopped fighting her battle for freedom.
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The court of the Russian town of Donetsk has recently sentenced her to 22 years, but the key witness who drops all charges has never been heard. Now, for the first time, he says how things went.
His nom de guerre is Ilim. That’s al he said to Ilya Azar, the Meduza reporter who interviewed him. But it takes just a quick search on the Mitrovorets database, the Sbu program that records over 8,000 fighters separatist files, to find out that his name is Andrej Tikhonov, a deputy commander of the regiment of the separatist forces of Luhansk, aged 50 and born in Kharkiv.
Andrej “Ilim” Tikhonov fought in the Battle of Stukalova Balka, near Luhansk, June 17, 2014, when Nadiya Savchenko was captured by separatist militias. In the long interview he tells how things went.
The LNR position was at the intersection between Stukalova Balka and Metalist, where the two journalists of the Russian channel VGTRK, Kornelyuk and Igor Anton Voloshin, were killed by mortar fire, for whose death Nadiya was sentenced. The Ukrainian army launched an attack at the separatists position with a tank and two Btr, but the anti-tank nests manage to fight them off. A few minutes later there was a second attack, also repelled with RPG. Tikhonov and his men took took possession of Ukrainian armored vehicles and lined them up on the road. “At this point, a light blue Ford Fiesta started driving up to our position. It stopped about 100 yards short of us, and out stepped a person in uniform. We approached the car. Inside the vehicle there were two men. They had seen the tanks on the road and they thought the Ukrainians had won. While this went on, the person in uniform turned out to be a young woman. I asked what her name was. When she said nothing, I hit her over the head with the butt of his gun. Then she said, ‘Nadiya’”.
When the reporter asks why he did not kill her on the spot, Tikhonov is clear. “I don’t kill prisoners. But I would have killed her if I’d known they would make her into a heroine and elect her into the Rada. But hindsight is always 20/20”.
