The Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) have assured that captured foreign fighters, including a Sierra Leonean national, will be treated according to the Geneva Convention.

This comes after a press conference held in Kyiv on Friday, March 15th, 2024.

Petro Yatsenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s prisoner-of-war treatment headquarters, addressed the press conference alongside several captured foreign fighters. These individuals, reportedly from Nepal, Cuba, Somalia, and Sierra Leone, were all apprehended while fighting for Russia in the ongoing conflict.

The Geneva Conventions, a cornerstone of international humanitarian law, protect the rights of prisoners of war. However, the Conventions also exclude mercenaries from such protections.

Yatsenko acknowledged this complexity, stating, “According to the Geneva Conventions, mercenaries do not have the right to be combatants or prisoners at war.”

Despite the legal ambiguity surrounding mercenaries, Yatsenko confirmed Ukraine’s commitment to upholding the Geneva Conventions’ treatment standards. This guarantee captured fighters three meals a day, medical care if necessary, and humane treatment while awaiting trial.

The Ukrainian military claims Russia has actively recruited foreign nationals to bolster their forces since the war’s outset. Countries like Nepal, Somalia, India, and Cuba have reportedly been targeted. This strategy likely stems from Russia’s dwindling domestic mobilization resources.

Yatsenko said, “Russia’s mobilization resource has been reducing. And we see that Russia boosted its efforts to send citizens from countries with difficult economic situations to the front line.”

The press conference follows reports from February 2024 of the capture of a Russian mercenary hailing from Sierra Leone by the 46th Airmobile Brigade of Ukraine. According to the Cloooud on Twitter (X), the incident occurred in the Mariinka direction on February 10, 2024. However, the identity and the circumstances surrounding the capture was not stated.