A court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic has found the three men guilty of plotting to overthrow the government, a crime punishable by death in an unrecognized democracy. They were also convicted of mercenary activities and terrorism. Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported that the three – Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Saaudun Brahim – were to face an execution squad. They have one month to appeal. The separatists had claimed that the three fighters were “mercenaries” who were not entitled to the usual protection provided to prisoners of war. In response, Aslin and Piner’s families said the men, who are said to have both lived in Ukraine since 2018, were members of the Ukrainian army with “long service”.
Britain condemns ‘false crisis’
British Foreign Secretary Liz Tras has condemned the verdict as “a sham crisis with absolutely no legitimacy”. I fully condemn the sentencing of Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, held by Russian plenipotentiaries in eastern Ukraine. They are prisoners of war. This is a sham crisis without any legitimacy at all. My thoughts are with families. We continue to do what we can to support them. & mdash; @trussliz The three men fought alongside Ukrainian troops. Piner and Aslin surrendered to pro-Russian forces in the southern port of Mariupol in mid-April, while Brahim did so in mid-March in the eastern city of Volnovakha. The Russian military has argued that foreign mercenaries fighting on the Ukrainian side are not fighters and will have to wait a long prison sentence, at best if arrested. Another British fighter captured by pro-Russian forces, Andrew Hill, is awaiting trial. Meanwhile, Russian forces continued to pound the eastern city of Severodonetsk in fierce street-to-street fighting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said could determine the fate of Donbas, the industrial heart of the country of coal mines and factories. The Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian troops in Donbas for years and occupied parts of the territory before the invasion. “Fierce fighting continues in the city itself, with street battles taking place with varying degrees of success in the city squares,” said Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk province. “The Ukrainian army is fighting for every street and house.” Sheverodonetsk is part of the last enclave of Luhansk that the Russians have not yet occupied.
Ukraine loses dozens a day: Minister of Defense
Zelensky called the arduous struggle for the city the “focus” of the battle for the larger Donbass, which consists of the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. “In many ways, the fate of our Donbass is being judged there,” Zelensky said in his overnight video speech Wednesday on the street outside his office in Kyiv. The mourners attend the funeral of Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr Suvorov in Kyiv on Thursday. Suvorov was recently killed in a vehicle while fighting the Russian invasion of the eastern Donbass region. (Christopher Furlong / Getty Images) Ukraine’s top military official said the situation on the front lines was “very difficult” and called for “very fast” arms supplies. 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. Haidai said Russian forces were also targeting Lysychansk, the town near Severodonetsk, with “day and night bombing” and trying to invade a key road leading from Lysychansk to the southwest. Russia, meanwhile, has said it hit a training facility west of the capital, far from the front lines. Russia’s Defense Ministry says it has used missiles fired from the air at a Ukrainian military base in the Zhytomyr region, where mercenaries are believed to be training. There was no immediate response from the Ukrainian authorities to the Russian allegations.
