> Mercenaries are always executed... <
Yep. But the article says they were regular soldiers in the Ukrainian army. I really can’t see how you could tell the difference. For if I were deploying mercenaries, I would take a moment to supply them with papers to “prove” they were in my regular army.
Maybe the Russians are just assuming foreigner = mercenary.
That assumption might have * some * validity.
The Russians know that they were regular military. They’re not assuming anything. It was a show trial and just like in the 30s, some westerners fall for it.
One of them is a naturalized Ukrainian citizen, having received citizenship prior to the invasion. He originally moved to Ukraine because his wife is Ukrainian and has been in their military for a few years. The russians know this and there is video evidence for it.
A big difference between their cases and other mercenaries is that here they are actually soldiers in the Ukrainian military. They’re not private contractors, etc.
It’s also interesting because Russia has plenty of non-nationals and dual-nationals (Uzbek supply drivers, there were articles early in the invasion about how they arrived in Russia, were given Russian passports, and started work supplying the military). So it could end up in a tit for tat situation.
They’re hostages and a deterrent at the same time. Perhaps they will actually execute one of them and keep the other.