(Marioupol) A pro-Russian separatist leader in eastern Ukraine said on Sunday that he did not want to change the sentence of the two Britons and the Moroccan sentenced to death for having fought with the Ukrainian army, finding it “just”.
Posted at 8:47 a.m.
“They came to Ukraine to kill civilians for money. This is why I do not see any conditions for any mitigation or modification of the sentence, ”denis Pushilin, the leader of the separatist region of Donetsk, who sentenced them, told journalists.
According to Denis Pushilin, “the court imposed a perfectly just punishment” on the three fighters. He also accused the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, of not having worried about their fate and of not having made contact with the separatist authorities.
Denis Pushilin was speaking during a meeting with the press in which AFP took part in Mariupol, as part of a trip organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense to this Ukrainian city ravaged by fighting and conquered by the Russian and separatist forces in May.
On Saturday, Boris Johnson’s spokesman said the latter was “appalled” by the death sentence of Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun.
“Clearly, they served in the Ukrainian armed forces and are prisoners of war”, and not mercenaries as the separatist authorities in Donetsk accuse them, said the spokesman, assuring that London was working with Kyiv for their release.
According to the families of Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, the two men settled in the country since 2018 and in a relationship with Ukrainian women had served in the Ukrainian army for several years.
On Friday, the UN expressed its concern after the death sentence of these prisoners of war by the pro-Russian rebels.