Collected photoMOSCOW, Dec 24, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A Russian-backed court in occupied Ukraine on Wednesday sentenced a Colombian man to 19 years in prison for fighting for Kyiv's army. Moscow has jailed several foreign fighters that its troops have captured in eastern Ukraine, prosecuting them as mercenaries, not as prisoners of war protected under the Geneva Convention. In a statement, Russia's Prosecutor General said the Supreme Court in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region had sentenced a man it named as Oscar Mauricio Blanco Lopez to 19 years in jail. The court published a video showing him standing behind metal bars, expressionless, as the verdict was read out. Last week, the same court sentenced a British man to 13 years in prison, also for fighting for Ukraine.

Source: Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha December 24, 2025 13:29 UTC