“First of all, I must be guided by the court decision that has been made,” he said. “By the nature of these articles, these crimes they committed, I see no reason or condition to forgive them. “They came to Ukraine to kill civilians for money. That is why I do not see any conditions for any mitigation or modification of the sentence.” He added that the court had “imposed a perfectly fair punishment” on the three fighters. The British were legitimate fighters who served in the Ukrainian armed forces and were fully entitled to the protection of prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention, British ministers had previously insisted. Foreign Minister Liz Truss said she had discussed the case with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kulebo, earlier this month. Mr Ashlin, 28, is a former caretaker from Newark and Piner, 48, is a former British soldier in the Royal English Regiment. Both had moved to Ukraine in 2018 and signed military contracts with the Ukrainian army. Brahim Saadoune’s family said he had enlisted as a contract soldier in the Ukrainian army in 2021.
