The case of Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko, who is charged in Russia with complicity in the murder of Russian journalists, has been separated from the large case of war crimes in eastern Ukraine, a lawyer said on Thursday.

"The 24 volumes of criminal proceedings against Nadia Savchenko have been singled out as a separate case, something that was expected. That's a technical point," Mark Feygin, a defense attorney for Savchenko, told Interfax.

Feygin said the pretrial investigation of the Savchenko case was drawing to an end and that the pilot had been presented with a definitive indictment. "There remain some forensic tests to do, and so we're smoothly moving toward Article 217 [familiarization of a suspect with evidence]," the attorney said.

It was unclear when the investigation would be officially over, according to the lawyer.