On 26 June, a court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced five citizens of the United Kingdom, Sweden and Croatia in absentia to prison terms ranging from 3.5 to 23 years for fighting on the side of Ukraine during the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said, as cited by kyivindependent.com.
The court accused British citizen John Harding, Swedish citizen Mathias Gustafsson and Croatian citizen Vjekoslav Prebeg of preparing for the so-called "violent seizure of power", attempting to change the constitutional order of Russia and participating in the war as "mercenaries".
Each of the three was sentenced in absentia to 23 years in prison, with five years suspended, and the remainder to be served in a maximum security colony, the official statement said.
Two other British nationals, Andrew Hill and Dylan Healy, were convicted of participating in the war as a "mercenary" and "complicity in the recruitment of mercenaries" respectively. Hill was sentenced to 4 years in prison, and Healy to 3 years and 6 months in a general regime penal colony.
The specific reasons for these charges were not specified. The UK, Sweden and Croatia have not commented on Russia's statement.
It is noted that the five foreigners were among those released from Russian captivity during the prisoner exchange in 2022. They were subjected to fake "trials" in the occupied territory of Donetsk region, and as a result, they could have been sentenced to death.
The military has denied Russia's accusations. Prebeg said he came to Kyiv in 2019 to help Ukraine in the war that Russia unleashed in the east of the country, and shortly afterwards decided to join the Ukrainian army, Reuters reported.
The family and friends of Harding, Hill and Healy said they were not mercenaries and called for them to be treated as prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions, the BBC reported.
Russia has reportedly been recruiting foreigners from countries such as Nepal, Somalia, India, Cuba and others to fight in Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
Moscow is using them as "cannon fodder" at the front, without conducting any combat training for the mercenaries, said Petro Yatsenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
Background. According to British intelligence, Russia is increasingly using mercenaries for assaults at the front – there are more than 20,000 mercenaries, reservists and former prisoners in the enemy's "volunteer corps".