Jun 21 2022 22:24
The Russian presidency said today, Tuesday, that it does not know the location of two Americans who were caught fighting in eastern Ukraine.
However, the Kremlin added that they were “mercenaries” and could be sentenced to death.
Americans Alexander Druck, 39, and Andy Hoyn, 27, went missing this month as they fought near the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
Later, Russian media broadcast interviews with the two, saying that they had been captured by Moscow-backed forces.
The Interfax news agency, quoting an unidentified source, said that the two men are in the separatist region of Donetsk.
And this month, a court in the Donetsk Republic sentenced to death Britons Sean Boehner and Aiden Aslin and Moroccan Ibrahim Saadoun after they were caught fighting for the Ukrainian army.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a telephone conversation with reporters that Moscow does not rule out the death penalty for the two Americans, both from Alabama, if they are tried in separatist-controlled territories.
“We are talking about two mercenaries who threatened the lives of our soldiers,” Peskov said.
The Kremlin says that these two men, as “mercenaries”, are not protected under the Geneva Conventions, which define how prisoners of war are to be treated.
In response, a senior State Department official told reporters, “Obviously we disagree strongly, and we’ve made our position clear to the Russian government.”
In response to a question about whether the Americans in the Donetsk region could be tried and sentenced to death, Peskov said, “We cannot rule out anything because these are decisions of the court. We never comment on them, and we have no right to interfere in court decisions.”
Source: agencies
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