Servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kyiv region. File photoWASHINGTON, Jun 20 American mercenaries captured in Ukraine cannot count on the protection of the Geneva Convention, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with MSNBC. «I would not go into explaining the legal side of their capture. One thing is clear — they committed crimes. They are not servicemen of the Ukrainian army. The Geneva Convention does not apply to them,» he explained.A US mercenary told how his compatriots fell into Russian captivityThe Kremlin spokesman called the captured Americans «soldiers of fortune» who participated in illegal activities in Ukraine and shot at the Russian military. «They threatened their lives and must be held accountable … for those crimes who committed,” Peskov concluded. Earlier, the State Department announced verification of information about two US citizens who were allegedly captured in Ukraine, where they went to participate in hostilities on the side of Kiev. As stated in the Russian Ministry of Defense, the main flow of foreign mercenaries went to Ukraine from Poland, Canada and the USA. In total, representatives of 64 countries act on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Now the flow has actually turned in the opposite direction amid the military failures of the Kyiv regime and massive daily losses, the department concluded. glory» to go to UkraineIn early June, the Supreme Court of the Donetsk People's Republic sentenced two citizens of Great Britain and one citizen of Morocco, who fought on the side of Ukrainian militants, to death. Since February 24, Russia has been conducting a military special operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine. As Vladimir Putin stressed, its goal is «to protect people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» According to the Ministry of Defense, Russian troops have already completed the main tasks of the first stage — they significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the department was the liberation of Donbass.
