The Ukraine’s first female combat pilot, Nadiya Savchenko, has gained much fame as “Ukraine’s Joan of Arc”. 35 year old Savchenko, a former air force pilot and political prisoner, has risen through the political ranks of the Ukrainian government to become a member of parliament with the help of the ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna Party. Savchenko also announced her intentions to run for president of Ukraine after being elected to parliament. Savchenko was captured by Russian separatists while serving in eastern Ukraine after Russia annexed Crimea, and later sentenced to 22 years in prison for the alleged order of a mortar strike that killed two Russian reporters. While in prison, Savchenko grew in fame, and began a hunger
