en.wikipedia.org
Ukraine's ratification date was in 1993.
Art 47. Mercenaries
1. A mercenary shall not have the right to be a combatant or a prisoner of war.
2. A mercenary is any person who:
(a) is specially recruited locally or abroad in order to fight in an armed conflict; (b) does, in fact, take a direct part in the hostilities; (c) is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a Party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar ranks and functions in the armed forces of that Party; (d) is neither a national of a Party to the conflict nor a resident of territory controlled by a Party to the conflict; (e) is not a member of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict; and (f) has not been sent by a State which is not a Party to the conflict on official duty as a member of its armed forces.
en.m.wikisource.org
The Britons' families have insisted they are long-serving members of the Ukrainian military and not mercenaries.
A spokesman added that prisoners of war "shouldn't be exploited for political purposes" and pointed to the laws of war laid out in the
Geneva Conventions - which confers "combatant immunity" on prisoners of war.
Mr Aslin, 28, from Newark, in Nottinghamshire, and Mr Pinner, 48, from Bedfordshire, were captured by Russian forces in April. Their families say they were fighting in the Ukrainian military.
The younger man has a Ukrainian fiancee and both men are said to have lived in Ukraine since 2018.
'Propaganda above law'
Mr Aslin's MP, Robert Jenrick, called for the Russian Ambassador to the UK to be summoned to the Foreign Office to "account for this egregious breach" of international law.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry told the BBC that all foreign nationals fighting for Ukraine's military who are captured have rights as prisoners of war under international humanitarian law, and Russia was "forbidden to abuse, intimidate them or behave inhumanely with them".
A spokesman described the "so-called trial" of all three men as "miserable", adding the government would "continue to make every effort to release all defenders of Ukraine".
"Such public trails place the interests of propaganda above law and morality, and undermine the exchange mechanisms of war prisoners," he said.
Chairman of the foreign affairs committee Tom Tugendhat accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of carrying out "a form of hostage taking, a form of revenge".
The Conservative MP told BBC Radio 4's PM programme: "It's not a state, it's not a court and the judges are merely people dressing up and pretending.
"The reality is this is an absolutely brutal thing to do to three completely innocent people."
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