Two British nationals and a Moroccan man were sentenced to death on Thursday for fighting alongside Ukraine, in a punishment imposed by the country’s pro-Moscow rebels.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin seemed to equate himself with the conquest of the monarch Peter the Great and spoke of his country’s need to “reclaim” territory and “defend itself” while Kremlin forces continued a war of attrition. in eastern Ukraine.
A court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic of Ukraine has found the three captured fighters guilty of working for a violent overthrow of power, a crime punishable by death in the unrecognized Eastern Republic. They were also convicted of mercenary activities and terrorism.
A Ukrainian soldier is in position during intense frontline fighting in Severodonetsk, Luhansk region, Ukraine, on Wednesday, June 8, 2022. (Photo AP / Oleksandr Ratushniak)
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that the men, identified as Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Ibrahim Saadoun, will face a firing squad. They have a month to go.
The separatist side argued that the three fighters were “mercenaries” who were not entitled to the usual protections granted to prisoners of war. The men are the first foreign fighters convicted by Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists.
Death sentences should be considered null and void, a spokesman for Ukraine’s foreign ministry said on Thursday.
“The so-called” trial “of military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the occupied Ukrainian territories does not matter,” Oleh Nikolenko told the Interfax agency of Ukraine.
“These spectacle trials put the interests of propaganda above law and morality; undermine the mechanisms for the return of prisoners of war. The Ukrainian government will continue to make every effort to free all defenders of Ukraine,” he added. Nikolenko.
He stressed that all foreign nationals fighting as part of the Ukrainian armed forces should be considered Ukrainian military personnel and protected as prisoners of war.
British Foreign Secretary Luz Truss also condemned the sentence as a “false sentence with absolutely no legitimacy”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman Jamie Davies said that under the Geneva Conventions, prisoners of war have the right to immunity as combatants and “should not be exploited for political purposes”.
He said: “We will continue to work with the Ukrainian authorities to secure the release of all Britons who are serving in the Ukrainian armed forces and are being held as prisoners of war.”
Ukrainian soldier holding radios during heavy front-line fighting in Severodonetsk, Luhansk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 8, 2022 (Photo AP / Oleksandr Ratushniak)
Saadoun’s father, Taher Saadoun, told the Moroccan online Arabic-language newspaper Madar 21 that his son is not a mercenary and has Ukrainian citizenship.
The families of Aslin and Pinner have claimed that the two men were members of the Ukrainian army for a long time. Both are said to have been living in Ukraine since 2018.
The three men fought alongside Ukrainian troops. Pinner and Aslin surrendered to pro-Russian forces in the southern port of Mariupol in mid-April, while Saadoun surrendered in mid-March in the eastern city of Volnovakha.
The Russian military has argued that foreign mercenaries fighting alongside Ukraine are not combatants and should await long prison sentences, at best, if captured. Another British fighter captured by pro-Russian forces, Andrew Hill, is awaiting trial.
As war broke out in a key city in the Donbas region of Ukraine and other parts of the country, the Russian president drew parallels between the founding of St. Petersburg by Peter the Great and the ambitions of present-day Russia. .
A Ukrainian tank is in position during intense frontline fighting in Severodonetsk, Luhansk region, Ukraine, on Wednesday, June 8, 2022. (Photo AP / Oleksandr Ratushniak)
When Peter founded the new capital, “no European country recognized it as Russia. Everyone recognized it as Sweden,” Putin said. He added: “What were you doing (Peter)? Recovering and strengthening. That’s what he did. And it looks like we had to recover and strengthen as well.”
Putin also seemed to leave the door open for further Russian territorial expansion.
“It’s impossible, you understand? It’s impossible to build a fence around a country like Russia. And we don’t intend to build that fence,” the Russian leader said.
Russian forces continued to strike the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk in a fierce street-by-street fight that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said could determine the fate of the Donbas, the country’s industrial center of coal mines and factories.
Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian troops in the Donbas for years and occupied strips of territory before the invasion.
“Fierce battles continue in the same city, street battles are taking place with varying successes in the city blocks,” said Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk Province. “The Ukrainian army is fighting for every street and house.”
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Sievierodonetsk is part of the last pocket of Luhansk that the Russians have yet to seize. The Donbas is made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces.
Zelenskyy called the meticulous struggle for the city the “epicenter” of the battle for the Donbas.
“In many ways, that’s where the fate of our Donbas is being decided,” Zelenskyy told his nightly video address on Wednesday.
Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in a Facebook post that up to 100 Ukrainian soldiers are being killed every day. “We, as a country, cannot afford to bleed, losing our best sons and daughters,” he said.