Pro-Russian separatist groups in eastern Ukraine have said they are “preparing a place for the execution” of two Britons who have been sentenced to death.
Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, who were fighting with the Ukrainian Army, had been defending the city of Mariupol when they were captured by Vladimir Putin ’s forces in April.
They, along with another defendant, Moroccan Brahim Saadoun, were sentenced last month after what Western politicians described as a show trial by the pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk People’s Republic.
A statement from officials in the breakaway region of Ukraine reportedly said that they were “preparing a place for their execution” which would be by firing squad and without any prior warning.
DPR spokesman Denys Pushilin added: "Everything is ready. It won’t be public."
The breakaway state has also defended its right to impose capital punishment.
DPR Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova said that the two Britons were sentenced to death for fighting as "mercenaries" when she was asked if capital punishment would harm the territory's attempt to be recognised internationally.
"We consider that mercenary activity is indeed a terrible crime because people, for a reward, come to another country to kill other people, despite having no personal goals connected to the conflict in question," she said.
"Yes, it is the highest measure of punishment, but it is in our legislation and it is not linked to the further process of recognition of the Donetsk People's Republic by other states."
The appeals by Mr Aslin and Mr Pinner are pending after they were given the death penalty.
Their relatives say they are soldiers who were under contract to the Ukrainian army and are therefore entitled to the protection of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war.
So far, only Russia and Syria have recognised the DPR as independent, but Nikonorova said it was also in discussions with the ambassador of North Korea.
It has opened an embassy, in a building close to Moscow's Garden Ring artery, during a low-key affair with no senior Russian government figures present last Tuesday.
DPR officials' plans for a grand ceremony had been put on hold because of the grave situation in eastern Ukraine, which is the main focus of the current fighting.
"We can't celebrate here when our countrymen are dying," ambassador Olga Makeyeva said.
In a move denounced by Kyiv and the West as illegal, Russia recognised the independence of the DPR and another breakaway entity, the Luhansk People's Republic, three days before President Vladimir Putin sent his forces into Ukraine on February 24 on what he calls a "special military operation".
