Kyiv has again protested to criminal charges brought in Russia against Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko and demanded her immediate release and repatriation.

"Despite repeated letters by Ukrainian [authorities] saying that Nadia Savchenko was forcibly evacuated onto the territory of the Russian Federation, today the Russian Investigative Committee brought an additional charge against her – a charge of illegal crossing of the border of the Russian Federation," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"These actions reflect an attempt by the Russian side to provide any justification whatsoever for the detention of the Ukrainian national and her prosecution on the territory of the Russian Federation. All evidence of Nadia Savchenko's non-complicity in actions attributed to her that has been provided by her defense is ignored," the statement said.

"The Russian Federation continues to disregard universal standards of international humanitarian law and pays no attention to numerous demands from the international community for the release of Nadia Savchenko," it said.

The ministry "calls upon the Russian side to take account of the humanitarian aspect of Nadia Savchenko's further detention and demands the unconditional fulfillment by the Russian Federation of its international commitments, including [its commitments under] the Minsk agreements, the immediate release of the detained Ukrainian national, and her return to her Homeland."

Earlier on Friday, Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin had told Interfax that Savchenko had been definitively charged with complicity in the murder of Russian journalists.