Convicted mercenaries. Archival photoMOSCOW, June 10.Ukraine's Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova announced that a pre-trial investigation has been launched in the country into the death sentence in the Donetsk People's Republic against foreign mercenaries who fought on the side of Ukrainian troops in Donbas.»Ukraine is investigating the imposition of the death sentence on the British and the Moroccan… Ukraine has already begun a pre-trial investigation into this fact and will take all necessary measures to ensure that everyone involved in these illegal actions is held accountable for them,» Venediktova said in a statement. 
The head of the British Foreign Office called the sentence on British mercenaries in the DPR illegitimate On June 9, three foreigners captured in Mariupol were sentenced to death in Donetsk — two citizens Great Britain Sean Pinner and Aiden Aslin, as well as Moroccan citizen Saadoun Brahim. All three pleaded guilty to Ukraine's armed aggression aimed at seizing power in the DPR. Aslin also pleaded guilty under the article «Training in order to carry out terrorist activities.» According to the laws of the DPR, the verdict can be challenged within a month. The official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Igor Konashenkov, stated that the mercenaries who arrived in Ukraine are not combatants and «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.
