Kyrgyz mercenary receives 10-year sentence for fighting against Ukraine

A Kyrgyz court has handed a 10-year sentence to a man who fought for Russia in Ukraine,  at a time when Moscow is trying to boost recruitment of people from former Soviet Central Asian countries.

Source: Тhe Guardian, citing local media 

Quote from Тhe Guardian: "A court in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, said it found a 32-year-old man guilty of mercenarism and sentenced him to 10 years in prison, in a decision announced late on Tuesday."

Details: The court established that the man, who denied the accusations, had taken part in hostilities in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region between June and November last year. He was receiving 180,000 rubles (£1,790) per month and an assurance of a Russian passport for his service.

The accused, previously unemployed and from the Jalal-Abad region of Kyrgyzstan, was in Moscow when he joined the forces of the self-proclaimed and Moscow-led "Luhansk People’s Republic", a separatist region in east Ukraine.

The Guardian notes that this is the first case of a Kyrgyz citizen being convicted for mercenarism in Ukraine.

Reportedly, dozens of citizens of Central Asian countries have been killed in Ukraine in recent months, most of whom joined the Russian army or the Wagner Group private military company.

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