Two British nationals and a Moroccan man were sentenced to death on Thursday for fighting alongside Ukraine in a crackdown on Moscow-backed rebels. 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 the unrecognized Eastern Republic. 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 claimed that the three fighters were “mercenaries” who were not entitled to the usual protection provided to prisoners of war. They are the first foreign fighters to be convicted by Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists. The families of Aslin and Piner have claimed that the men, who are said to have both lived in Ukraine since 2018, were members of the Ukrainian army with “long service”. British Foreign Secretary Luz Trouse has condemned the ruling as a “false decision with absolutely no legitimacy”. The spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Jamie Davis, said that under the Geneva Conventions, captured soldiers were entitled to immunity as fighters. 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 pounded the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk in fierce street-to-street fighting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said could determine the fate of Donbas, the country’s industrial coal mine and factory. 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.” Sievierodonetsk is part of the last enclave of Luhansk that the Russians have not yet occupied. 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. 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. In other developments: Haidai said Russian forces were also targeting Lysychansk, the city adjacent to Sievierodonetsk, with “day and night bombing” and trying to invade a key road leading from Lysychansk to the southwest. Russia claims to have hit an educational 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. Moscow has repeatedly accused Ukraine of using mercenaries in the fighting.
Getting in touch
Do you have questions about the attack in Ukraine? Email [email protected]
Include your name, location, and contact information if you would like to speak to a CTV News reporter. Your comments can be used in a CTVNews.ca story.
