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Two British citizens and a Moroccan were sentenced to death Thursday for fighting on Ukraine’s side, in a punishment handed down by the country’s pro-Moscow rebels, Associated Press reported.

The proceedings against the three captured fighters were denounced by Ukraine and the West as a sham and a violation of the rules of war.

Meanwhile, as the Kremlin’s forces continued a grinding war of attrition in the east, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to liken his actions to those of Peter the Great in the 18th century and said the country needs to “take back” historic Russian lands.

A court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in Ukraine found the three fighters guilty of seeking the violent overthrow of power, an offense punishable by death in the unrecognized eastern republic. The men were also convicted of mercenary activities and terrorism.

Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported that the defendants — identified as Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Brahim Saadoun — will face a firing squad. They have a month to appeal, according to Associated Press.

The separatist side argued that the three were “mercenaries” not entitled to the usual protections accorded prisoners of war. They are the first foreign fighters sentenced by Ukraine’s Russian-backed rebels.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko condemned the proceedings as legally invalid, saying, “Such show trials put the interests of propaganda above the law and morality.” He said that all foreign citizens fighting as part of Ukraine’s armed forces should be considered Ukrainian military personnel and protected as such.

British Foreign Secretary Luz Truss pronounced the sentencing a “sham judgment with absolutely no legitimacy.” Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman Jamie Davies said that under the Geneva Conventions, POWs are entitled to immunity as combatants.

Saadoun’s father, Taher Saadoun, told the Moroccan online Arab-language newspaper Madar 21 that his son is not a mercenary and that he holds Ukrainian citizenship.

Aslin’s and Pinner’s families have said that the two men were long-serving members of the Ukrainian military. Both are said to have lived in Ukraine since 2018.

The three men fought alongside Ukrainian troops before Pinner and Aslin surrendered to pro-Russian forces in the southern port of Mariupol in mid-April and Saadoun was captured in mid-March in the eastern city of Volnovakha, Associated Press reported.

Another British fighter taken prisoner by the pro-Russian forces, Andrew Hill, is awaiting trial.

The Russian military has argued that foreign mercenaries fighting on Ukraine’s side are not combatants and should expect long prison terms, at best, if captured.

In other developments, Putin drew parallels between Peter the Great’s founding of St. Petersburg and modern-day Russia’s ambitions.

When the czar founded the new capital, “no European country recognized it as Russia. Everybody recognized it as Sweden,” Putin said. He added: “What was (Peter) doing? Taking back and reinforcing. That’s what he did. And it looks like it fell on us to take back and reinforce as well.”

Putin also appeared to leave the door open for further Russian territorial expansion.

“It’s impossible — Do you understand? — impossible to build a fence around a country like Russia. And we do not intend to build that fence,” the Russian leader said.

In other developments, French President Emmanuel Macron told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that France was ready to send more “heavy weapons” to Ukraine, according to Macron’s office. French officials did not elaborate on the weaponry. The phone conversation came after Macron angered Ukrainian officials by saying world powers should not “humiliate” Putin.”

Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian army continued to push Russian forces back from Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, which lies to the north of the Donbas. The transmission of Ukrainian television was restored after a TV tower was shelled, Associated Press reported.

“Hitting television centers, destroying communication channels, leaving people isolated – this is the tactic of the occupiers that they cannot do without, for openness and honesty also are weapons against all that the Russian state does,” he said late Thursday in his evening address.

CPN (Maoist Centre) Chief Whip Dev Gurung has demanded that the government postpone the US visit of Chief of Army Staff Prabhu Ram Sharma and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.

Taking part in the ongoing discussion on the budget at the Parliament, the Maoist leader said that the visit would not be appropriate now considering security sensitivities.

“CoAS Sharma and Prime Minister Deuba’s visit is not necessary,” he said, adding, “I would like to request CoAS Sharma and Prime Minister Deuba to postpone the visit keeping in view of the national security sensitivities.”

Even if the visit is not postponed, there should be no agreement including State Strategy Partnership, he said.

Saying that the US is mounting pressure on the SSP, he stressed on the need to move ahead only through all-party and national consensus while signing any agreement.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari appointed Naresh Bikram Dhakal as the ambassador to Qatar.

Bhandari appointed Dhakal to the post on the recommendation council of ministers in accordance with Article 282 of the Constitution.

Earlier on April 8, the government had recommended 20 people for appointment as ambassadors of Nepal to various countries.

The High Court Tulsipur, Butwal Bench, has issued a mandamus over a writ petition filed demanding the whereabouts of those disappeared during the Maoist insurgency.

A bench comprising judges Nityananda Pandey and Mamata Khanal issued the order responding to the writ petition filed in the court by Budhu Pasi and Dhan Kumari Tharu on behalf of the families of disappeared people.

Advocates Shiva Prasad Gaudel and Indira Acharya pleaded in favour of the petition.

It is said, their repeated calls to the concerned authorities for finding the whereabouts of the disappeared had been largely ignored.

Their earlier effort to file a police case on the International Day of the Disappeared could not be fruitful due to reluctance of the district police office to register the report. So with nowhere to go, they knocked the door of the court.

Lautu Pasi alias Ram Palat of the then Bodawar VDC-3 (now Rohini Rural Municipality-5) in Rupandehi was arrested in 2059 BS and subsequently disappeared, according to the petition.

Victim Budhu said that though they knocked the door of Police Office to file FIR, it was not happened and they eventually reached the court.

Saying he met his elder brother on June 7, 2004 for the last time, Budhu demanded the disclosure of whereabouts of his elder brother at the earliest.

Similarly, it has been one and half decades since the disappearance of spouse of Dhan Kumari Tharu of Siyari rural municipality-6 in Rupandehi.

Tharu shared that writ petition was filed at the Court, seeking the disclosure of the situation of Kamal, who was made disappeared on August 27, 2005 from state side.

Security personnel on plain clothes had apprehended Kamal from Bansgadhi at a time when he was going to his in-laws house.

The Comprehensive Peace Accord signed between the then rebel side and government has mentioned that the whereabouts of disappeared persons should be made public within 60 days after disappearance, but the implementation of the agreement is still awaited.

The victim families complained the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons has failed to carry out effective works even after seven years of its formation.