Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has sent a request to the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, concerning the sentencing phase in the Russian trial against Ukrainian pilot and parliamentarian Nadiya Savchenko.

"I asked FedericaMog [Federica Mogherini] to ensure presence of European diplomats at the decisive stage of the trial against Nadiya," Klimkin wrote on his Twitter account on Saturday.

Savchenko has been held in custody by Russia since July 2014 on the charge of aiding the killing of Russian journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin in eastern Ukraine.