Two Britons and a Moroccan were sentenced to death by a “court” of Donetsk for fighting on the side of Ukraine, the Reuters agency reported. The convicts are the two British Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin and the Moroccan citizen Brahim Saadoun.

“Prisoners of war should not be used for political purposes”, - commented the spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The head of the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs also referred to the matter.

UK Foreign Minister Liz Truss condemned Thursday’s “sentence”, describing it as “sham”: “They are prisoners of war. This is an apparent sentence that has no justification”.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, referring to the verdict, said Britain was “deeply concerned”. “We keep repeating that prisoners of war should not be used for political purposes”, - he said.

It noted that, under the Geneva Convention, prisoners of war should not be prosecuted for participating in hostilities. “We will therefore continue to work with the Ukrainian authorities to try to release all British citizens who served in the Ukrainian armed forces and are currently held as prisoners of war”, - he added.