A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was speaking in Ukraine, not Russia, about Aiden Aslin and Sean Piner, who were convicted of “wage labor” by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). Ashlin’s family said he and Piner “are not and have never been mercenaries.” Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register They were living in Ukraine when the war broke out and “as members of the Ukrainian armed forces, they should be treated with respect like any other prisoner of war,” the family said in a statement. A UN official said such trials were tantamount to war crimes, and that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba had condemned what he called a “fake trial of prisoners of war”. A spokesman for Prime Minister Johnson said Britain’s priority was to work with Kyiv to secure the immediate release of the troops. Asked if Britain would talk to Russia, he replied: “We do not have regular interaction with the Russians.” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who spoke with Couleba on Friday, described the condemnation as a “gross violation of the Geneva Convention”. read more A still image, shot by the Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, shows Britain’s Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun captured by Russian forces during a military coup in the United Kingdom. in a specific location as Donetsk, Ukraine, in a still image from a video released on June 8, 2022. The video was taken on June 8, 2022. Supreme Court of the Donetsk People’s Republic / Brochure via REUTERS TV The Russian Foreign Ministry said Britain’s response to such sanctions was “often hysterical” and that it should appeal to the so-called GDR authorities. Britain does not recognize the DPR. The Ukrainian government has no control over the separatists in the east. Russia has deployed enormous firepower there to expand the separatists’ reach as part of its invasion of Ukraine, which it describes as a “special military operation.” read more Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the two Britons and Brahim Saadoun, a Moroccan man also sentenced to death, had committed crimes in the territory of the self-proclaimed separatist state. Among the United Nations member states, only Russia recognizes the entire Ukrainian province of Donetsk, much of which remains under Ukrainian control, as an independent GDR. The region is internationally recognized as part of Ukraine. A senior Ukrainian official said Russia wanted to use foreigners as hostages to pressure the West on peace talks. read more The UN official, speaking in Geneva, expressed his concern. “According to the Ukrainian leadership, all the men were part of the Ukrainian armed forces – and if that is the case, they should not be considered mercenaries,” he told reporters. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Additional references by Paul Carrel in Geneva and David Ljunggren in Ottawa. curated by William James, Philippa Fletcher and John Stonestreet Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
