The UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, will raise the case of Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, the two British men sentenced to death by a pro-Russian court in occupied Ukraine, when she speaks to Ukraine’s foreign secretary, Dmytro Kuleba, on Friday. Truss has already called it a “sham judgment” and said it had “absolutely no legitimacy”. The UK’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, is appalled by the death sentences and has ordered ministers to do “everything in their power” to secure their release, a spokesperson said.
A British MP has said the only person who can immediately resolve the situation with the two men is the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Robert Jenrick described the sentencing as a “war crime”, “absolutely outrageous” and “a flagrant breach of international law”. He said the two men were being “essentially used as hostages” by pro-Russian forces in the region.
