Britain is demanding that the lives of the three foreign “mercenaries” sentenced to death in Ukraine be respected

The pro-Russian separatists Two British and one Moroccan fighters were sentenced to death on Thursday accused of acting as “mercenaries” for Ukraine, which requires weapons to prevent the strategic city of Severodonetsk from falling into the hands of the Russians.

Severodonetsk and neighboring Lysychansk became the center of the Russian offensive in an attempt to seize the entire Donbas mining basin in eastern Ukraine.

The British Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and the Moroccan Saadun Brahim they were captured by the separatists who have already controlled that region since 2014.

the three were “accused of participating in the fighting as mercenaries” and sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of the Donetsk People’s Republic (recognized only by Russia), the official Russian agency TASS reported.

“guilty”

The British government has expressed its “deep concern” at these convictions and demanded that its two citizens be given “prisoners of war”.

During the trial, the three foreigners found guilty of having committed “actions aimed at seizing power and overthrowing the constitutional order of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” said the Russian news agency Interfax.

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, thousands of foreign volunteers have enlisted fight alongside Ukrainian troops against Russia.

Moscow claimed to have bombed a training center for “foreign mercenaries” in the Zhytomyr region, west of kyiv.

Ukraine has once again asked Western powers for more long-range missile systems, such as the Himars that the US announced in early June, with a firing range of around 80km.

With those devices, the Ukrainian troops could regain control of Severodonetsk “In two or three days,” said Sergei Gaidai, governor of Lugansk in Donbas, on Thursday.

Ukrainian soldiers are fighting one of the “toughest” battles of the war in Severodonetsk, much of which is in the hands of Russian forces, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said.

“In many ways, the fate of the Donbas is decided there”, He added.

About 800 civilians are trapped in the chemical plant in the city of Azot, where they have taken refuge, according to a lawyer for a Ukrainian tycoon whose company owns the facility.

The Ukrainian authorities have so far not confirmed this information.

bombing

Wednesday night, Russian forces bombed Azot at least twice, indicated the Ukrainian presidency.

According to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, the Ukrainian victims on the front line in a few days reach 100 dead and 500 injured.

Across the Donets River, Lysychansk is completely under the control of Kiev, but it undergoes a “chaotic” bombardment.Gaidai said, accusing the Russians of “deliberately” shooting at hospitals and humanitarian aid distribution centers.

“There is no one to help me,” Yuriy Krasnikov, a retiree in a neighborhood full of destroyed homes in Lysychansk, told AFP.

After more than a hundred days of war, Russian troops continue bombing different locations in the country.

In the past 24 hours, at least four people have died in Toshkivka, a town about 25 km south of Severodonetsk, according to the Ukrainian presidency.

Four others died in Donetsk and two more in the city of Kharkov, the second in the country, in the north-east.

Ukraine’s gross domestic product (GDP) decreased by 15.1% in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the same period a year earlier, due to the war, the Ukrainian state statistics agency announced.

The inflation rate in that period reached 18%..

The war between Russia and Ukraine, two major suppliers of raw materials and food, is also global in scope, with an immediate effect of accelerating inflation on all continents.

“The impact of the war on food security, energy and finance is systemic, serious and acceleratedUN Secretary-General António Guterres warned Wednesday.

President Zelensky, who accuses Moscow of being the cause of this crisis, called on Thursday for the exclusion of Russia from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“What is Russia doing if it starves at least 400 million people, or potentially more than 1 billion people? “, said the president in videoconference in front of the OECD.

Source: AFP and AP

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