DONETSK: A Ukrainian pilot who is charged with complicity to murder in the deaths of two Russian journalists in war-torn eastern Ukraine has arrived to court in southwestern Russia where the verdict in her trial is to continue.

Nadezhda Savchenko served in a volunteer battalion against Russia-backed rebels and was captured by separatist rebels in July 2014 in eastern Ukraine before she surfaced in Russia under disputed circumstances.

The Ukrainian government says Savchenko is a prisoner of war and should be released under current truce agreements in eastern Ukraine.

Prosecutors, who say Savchenko called in coordinates for the shelling that killed two journalists and several civilians in July 2014, have asked for a 23-year sentence in her case. Savchenko's lawyers have said they think a conviction is certain.