Russia: Two Americans captured in Ukraine committed 'crimes'

Russia says two Americans captured while fighting with Ukraine's military were "mercenaries" engaged in illegal activities and should be "held accountable for those crimes".
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the detained men are not covered by the Geneva convention as they are not regular troops.

"They're soldiers of fortune and they were involved in illegal activities on the territory of Ukraine. They were involved in firing and shelling our military personnel. They were endangering their lives," he said.

According to the Interfax news agency on Tuesday, the two Americans are currently in the Russian-backed separatist region of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

The two men have been identified as Andy Huynh and Alexander Drueke, both from Alabama. Britons Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin and Morrocan citizen
Brahim Saadoun were sentenced to death by a Donetsk court earlier this month, after being captured fighting with the Ukrainian army.

Though Russia does not carry out the death penalty, the self-styled Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics do. 

Drueke, 39, is a former US Army staff sergeant who served two tours in Iraq, while Huynh,27, is a former Marine.

The soldiers went missing while fighting under heavy fire in a village near Kharkiv only 25 miles from the Russian border.

The US State department confirmed having seen photos and online videos of the two veterans in custody.

On the ground in eastern Ukraine, pro-Russia fighters said they were advancing towards the main battlefield bastion. 

Ukraine acknowledged difficulties in fighting in its east as Russian forces regrouped after stepping up pressure and making advances on two cities.

The governor of the Luhansk region, scene of the heaviest Russian onslaughts in recent weeks, said Russian forces had launched a massive attack and gained some territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had predicted Russia would step up attacks ahead of the EU summit on Thursday and Friday. He was defiant in a late Monday address to the nation, though referring to "difficult" fighting in Luhansk for Sievierodonetsk and its sister city, Lysychansk.

Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidai said Russian forces controlled most of Sievierodonetsk, apart from the Azot chemical plant, where more than 500 civilians have reportedly been sheltering for weeks.

The war has entered a brutal attritional phase in recent weeks, with Russian forces concentrating on Ukrainian-controlled parts of the Donbas, which Russia claims on behalf of separatists.

In Odesa, Ukraine's biggest Black Sea port, which is blockaded by the Russian navy, a Russian missile destroyed a food warehouse on Monday, Ukraine's military said.

The United States and its European allies have provided weapons and financial assistance to Ukraine but avoided direct involvement in the conflict.

Meanwhile, Russia on Tuesday summoned the European Union's ambassador in Moscow over a rail blockade that has halted shipments of many basic goods to a Russian outpost on the Baltic Sea.

The latest diplomatic crisis is over the Kaliningrad enclave, a port and surrounding countryside on the Baltic Sea that is home to nearly a million Russians, connected to the rest of Russia by a rail link through EU- and NATO-member Lithuania.

In recent days, Lithuania has shut the route for basic goods including construction materials, metals and coal.

Vilnius and Brussels say Lithuania is implementing new EU sanctions that came into force on Saturday. Moscow calls the move an illegal blockade and has threatened unspecified retaliation.

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