Ukraine seeks to save foreign soldiers sentenced to death

• Ukraine is doing everything possible to spare three foreign fighters sentenced to death in Donbas, an MP has said.
• Two Britons and a Moroccan were convicted of “mercenary operations” by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

Ukraine is doing everything possible to spare three foreign people sentenced to death in Donbas by proxy authorities for fighting for Ukraine, according to a member of Ukraine’s parliamentary security and defence committee.

Two Britons and a Moroccan were convicted of “mercenary operations” by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), whose separatist leaders are backed by Moscow, on Thursday after being apprehended.

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He didn’t go into any further details.

Iryna Vereshchuk, the Deputy Prime Minister, expressed confidence that the separatist leadership would act rationally in the end, “since they are well aware of the irreversible consequences for them and the Russians if they make any wrong moves against these three of our men.”

“Something tells me that, eventually, one way or another, sooner or later, these three servicemen will be exchanged (or otherwise get home),”  she said in an online post on Saturday.

The British government has described the fighters’ sentencing as an “egregious breach” of the Geneva Convention, which states that prisoners of war are entitled to combatant immunity and should not be tried for taking part in hostilities.

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As a result, “the status of prisoners of war under international law fully applies to them. We will take all measures to save them,”  legislator Venislavskyi stated.