Russia is the only country that considers the GDR independent. The international community does not recognize the region and its institutions and considers the territory to be part of Ukraine. Independent security groups have long accused the separatists of a sad history of human rights and ill-treatment of detainees. The Ukrainian government said in a statement Wednesday that it considers all foreign volunteers to be members of its armed forces and to be legitimate fighters who are entitled to treatment as prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions. RIA Novosti quoted the “head of the Judicial Council” in Donetsk as saying that the convicts “could appeal against the decision within a month”. Pavel Kosovan, one of the defendants’ lawyers, said his clients would appeal the verdict, Russian state media TASS reported after the death sentence was handed down. UK Foreign Secretary Liz Tras said the decision had “absolutely no legitimacy”. “I strongly condemn the sentencing of Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner by Russian plenipotentiaries in eastern Ukraine. They are prisoners of war. This is a sham crisis with absolutely no legitimacy. My thoughts are with the families. We continue to do what we can.” “to support them,” he said in a statement posted on Twitter. Piner was a former member of the UK Armed Forces, according to a statement released by the UK Office for Foreign Affairs, Commonwealth and Development in April. Several friends of Saadoune told CNN that he first came to Ukraine to study at a university and joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 2021. Ashlin’s family said Wednesday after a propaganda video of him and the other two men was released in court that he was working with the UK Foreign Office and the Ukrainian government to bring him home. In a statement released by the UK Foreign Office on CNN on Wednesday, the family said Ashley was “a very dear person and she misses him very much”. CNN also contacted the British and Moroccan authorities for comment.
