Nadia Savchenko trial: Russian court gives verdict on Ukrainian pilot

Prosecutors had asked for a 23-year prison sentence for Savchenko

Ukrainian airforce officer Nadezhda (Nadia) Savchenko smiles inside a defendants' cage as she attends a hearing at the Basmanny district court in Moscow on March 4, 2015 (Getty Images)

A Russian judge has begun reading the verdict of Nadia Savchenko who was accussed of killing two journalists, news agencies are reporting.

Prosecutors argued that she was driven by “political hatred” and ordered the mortar fire that killed the journalists in eastern Ukraine and are calling for a 23-year prison sentence for Ms Savchenko.

It was initially thought the judge had found her guilty, but journalists say a final verdict has not been delivered.

A guilty verdict would likely inflame already dire relations between Moscow and Kiev.

The 34-year-old was captured by pro-Moscow rebels in June 2014, according to Reuters, during the separatist conflict there and handed over to Russian authorities where she was charged with directing mortar fire which killed two Russian journalists. She has denied wrongdoing.

Ms Savchenko is regarded as a national hero and symbol of anti-Kremlin defiance by many in her native Ukraine. In Russia, state TV has depicted her as a dangerous Ukrainian nationalist with the blood of civilians on her hands.

The judge, Leonid Stepanenko, told a courtroom in southern Russia that Savchenko had "deliberately inflicted death on two persons, acting by prior conspiracy, and on the motives of hatred and enmity."

The case has attracted from criticism from the West. According to the BBC, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has said she should be freed "immediately and unconditionally" while the US envoy to the UN, Samantha Power, described the trial as "farcical".

Additional reporting by wires