Russia says UK should speak directly to DPR authorities over death sentences, they were mercenaries

Spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry says the UK should speak directly to authorities in the DPR over the sentencing of two British citizens to death in the breakaway region of eastern Ukraine.

Maria Zakharova said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website that the British nationals were “mercenaries sent by the West to help the Kyiv nationalist regime … and do not have the right to prisoner of war status”.

She also described London’s reaction to the verdicts as “hysterical”.

The UK government has argued that the British nationals are prisoners of war and therefore entitled to protection under the Geneva Conventions, which afford fighters immunity from prosecution for military actions deemed to be lawful.