Aiden Aslin has been sentenced to death, by the Russian controlled separatists, for defending his country against the Russian invasion.
Mr Aslin moved to Ukraine in 2018, and is a Ukraine citizen, with a Ukraine fiance.
He has been a marine in the Ukrainian military since 2018 and, according to his family, he is part of Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade.
His crime: Defending his country against an invading force.
He was captured in April while defending the besieged city of Mariupol in Ukraine.
The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, states he is charged with a violent seizure of power and undergoing training to carry out terrorist activities.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying the trials were “being held on the basis of the legislation of the Donetsk People’s Republic [DPR] because the crimes in question were committed on the DPR’s territory”.
The Donetsk People’s Republic is a part of Ukraine that has been fighting the Ukraine government for some years. The DPR is backed and supplied by Russia.
The Donetsk People’s Republic is a breakaway state located in Ukraine, formed on 7 April 2014 by pro-Russian separatists following Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
The silent Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Most of the 3.6 million people living in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions speak Russian, a result of a migration of Russian workers to the regions.
As they prefer Russian control, one wonders why they moved to Ukraine?
Some say they prefer the freedom in Ukraine.
In polls in the Donetsk region, the support for separation from Ukraine varied between 89% in the Russian controlled polls, and 4% in the polls under Ukraine law.
Donetsk and Luhansk residents living in Russia were also able to cast their votes in Moscow. Many reports of people voting more than once were recorded by international press observers.
71.1 - 873,655