MOSCOW (AP) — A Kremlin spokesman says Vladimir Putin is resisting President Barack Obama's call for Russia to release a Ukrainian pilot who is on trial over the death of two Russian journalists.

Nadezhda Savchenko was fighting with a Ukrainian volunteer brigade against Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine when she was captured in June 2014. Russia says she was a spotter who called in coordinates for a mortar attack that killed two journalists and several civilians. A verdict is expected Monday in her trial on charges of accessory to murder.

A senior Obama administration official has said the U.S. president urged Savchenko's release in a phone call with Putin this week.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Russian president, said Thursday Putin told Obama that "interference in our courts isn't permissible and not possible."