Ukrainian tanks. File photoMOSCOW, June 8.Moscow calls on London to take measures to prevent the participation of its citizens in hostilities in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing. According to her, the British Embassy in Moscow regularly contacts the Russian Foreign Ministry about mercenaries detained in Donbass to clarify the fate. The Russian Federation warned that the responsibility for citizens of foreign countries who took part in armed activities in Ukraine lies entirely with the governments of these states.The mercenaries who fought with the British Hill were killed, the source said. She stressed that any armed activity of foreign mercenaries would be stopped against the Russian military, and «volunteer» groups would be destroyed. «In this regard, we again call on London to radically reconsider its attitude towards what is happening in Ukraine from supporting the Kyiv regime, to take effective measures to prevent the participation of their compatriots in the events in Ukraine,» Zakharova said. The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry also recommended that countries whose mercenaries were detained in the Donbass contact the LNR and the DNR directly. The British Sean Pinner and Aiden Aslin surrendered in Mariupol in mid-April. Major General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said that «the mercenaries who arrived in Ukraine are not combatants, the best thing that awaits them is a long term in prison.» He noted that foreign mercenaries do not have the status of combatants under international humanitarian law. The prosecutor's office of the Donetsk People's Republic announced the end of the investigation and the transfer of the criminal case against the British mercenary Aiden Aslin to the court, he may face the death penalty. On Tuesday, British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said that the government intends to protest in connection with the criminal case against Aslin. At the same time, Elena Shishkina, chairman of the committee on criminal and administrative legislation of the People's Council of the DPR, reported that foreign mercenaries who took part in the fighting actions in the Donbass on the side of the Ukrainian troops are not subject to exchange.
