Americans Getting Death Sentences Won't Stop Ukraine Volunteers—Facilitator

The death sentences faced by American soldiers reportedly captured by Russian soldiers will not deter other volunteers from fighting alongside Kyiv's forces, a facilitator of international volunteers to Ukraine has told Newsweek.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said "it depends on the investigation," when asked if U.S. veterans Alexander Drueke (27) and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh (39) could face the same fate as two Britons detained by Russian forces.

Earlier this month, British men Aiden Aslin (28) and Shaun Pinner (48), were given death sentences after they appeared in court in the separatist Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) following their capture in April while fighting in Mariupol.

Peskov suggested that Drueke and Huynh could get the same punishment. Calling them "soldiers of fortune" who were "firing at our military guys."

"There will be a court, and there will be a court decision," Peskov told NBC News on Monday, "they should be punished."

The families of Drueke and Huynh, from Alabama, reported them missing last week and videos shown on Russian state TV suggest they are alive and in captivity.

The pair were separated from their Ukrainian troop contingent near Kharkiv where they surrendered after being found by a Russian patrol, according to Russian broadcaster RT.

Russian state television has been making much of their capture, accusing them of being "mercenaries" rather than volunteers, and as such, would not be eligible for the protections afforded prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.

Macer Gifford, a British military volunteer who fought in Syria and is helping advise those wanting to fight with Ukrainian forces, has said that the punishment they might get is unlikely to be much of a deterrent.

"If you have the character of an international volunteer, and you've made the decision to come out, no one's really going to persuade you or dissuade you. You've got your own reasons for coming out," said Gifford, who fought with Aslin against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in Syria.

"Because if they've made the decision to travel 1,000 miles to fight against the Russian army, at any point in that journey, they could have turned around and come home again," he told Newsweek.

"If they have made it to the point where they are on the frontline, they are fighting and they have heard the first bomb go off or the first crack of a bullet over the top of their head, then I would say the death sentence on Aiden and others will deter them from surrendering more than it would send them home."

Speaking from Portugal before he returns to Ukraine next week, Gifford said that he warns people that if Russia "showed so little regard for civilian life" in Ukraine such as in Bucha, where massacres by Moscow's troops reportedly took place, "then granting people prisoner of war status is not something that they're going to bother doing."

Gifford has warned those people he advises going to Ukraine, who now mostly consist of those with medical and engineering expertise, of a "legal and moral gray area."

"When it comes to people like Aiden (Aslin) and these young American men, they've chosen to join the Ukrainian military for no money and to fight against the Russians who are invading their country.

"They're doing it out of internationalism out of out of solidarity to a local cause, " he said, and as such, "they should be offered the same amount of protection under the Geneva Convention."

"There's no doubt that the Russians will try and ratchet up tensions and take advantage of the the propaganda coup of capturing young American men," he added.

The U.S. State Department is investigating the cases of Drueke and Huynh, although has not publicly confirmed their capture. On Saturday, the State Department told Newsweek it was in contact with the Ukrainian authorities and the International Committee of the Red Cross but "due to privacy considerations" had "no further comment" on the cases.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, a State Department spokesperson told Newsweek: "We call on the Russian government, as well as its proxies, to live up to their international obligations in their treatment of any individual, including those captured fighting in Ukraine."

Update 06/21/22, 10: a.m. ET: This article has been updated with a State Department response to Newsweek.