Ukrainian Pilot Decides to End Hunger Strike in Russian Jail

Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko has decided to end a hunger strike after going more than 80 days without food to protest her detention in a Russian jail, one of her lawyers said on Friday.

"She has taken the decision," lawyer Mark Feigin told AFP.

"She had been on the brink," he said, adding that the pilot's weakening health had seen her blood pressure fall sharply while she was suffering seizures and vomited even after drinking water.

"I am happy that Nadezhda listened to my advice to end her hunger strike," the lawyer separately wrote on Twitter, using the Russian version of her name.

The 33-year-old helicopter navigator, who has been charged with involvement in the deaths of two Russian reporters in a mortar attack during the war in east Ukraine, has been held in a Moscow jail for nearly nine months.

Savchenko denies the charges and says she was kidnapped and brought to Russia. She had been on hunger strike since December 13.

Savchenko agreed to eat some chicken soup on Thursday as calls mounted for her release, with warnings from the EU that she risked "permanent damage to her health or death."

Feigin told AFP that Savchenko decided to start eating again after authorities threatened to transfer her to a civilian hospital and force-feed her there.

"And she would not be able to resist. That was the choice," he said, noting that she could not consume normal food and was now on diet of pureed food.

Another of Savchenko's lawyers, Nikolai Polozov, said she would not be able to start eating solid food for about a month.

He said Savchenko had halted the hunger strike just before she hit a "point of no return" which would mark irreversible health damage, or worse.

"Three weeks ago she was examined by German doctors. They said the point of no return would be around March 8."