Prosecutors of the Criminal Proceedings Supervision Department for crimes committed during armed conflict of the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) initiated criminal proceedings on the facts of the participation of more than 100 foreign mercenaries in the armed conflict against Ukraine as part of illegal Russia-occupation fighters, the PGO said on its website on Friday.

"The prosecutors have found out that, from 2014 to the present, at least two citizens of Bulgaria, seven of Armenia, one of Georgia, 19 citizens of Italy, some 27 of Spain, some 12 of Kazakhstan, three of Lithuania, some 26 of Moldova, two of the Netherlands and five of Germany, as part of irregular Russia-occupation forces, not provided for by law, participated in the armed conflict against Ukraine in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which led to the death of people and other grave consequences," the PGO said.

According to the PGO, foreigners were involved in various units of illegal armed formations, in particular, in the so-called in 14th battalion of territorial defense "Ghost," 11th separate motorized rifle regiment "Vostok," 7th separate motorized rifle brigade "Chistiakovskaya," 1st separate motorized rifle brigade "Slavianskaya," separate reconnaissance battalion "Sparta," separate assault battalion "Somalia," illegal armed formations "Rusichi," "Wolf Hundred," "USSR Brianka" and others.

"In accordance with Article 47 of the 1977 First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions relating to the protection of victims of war, they are mercenaries, and their actions are in violation of the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 4, 1989," the PGO said.

The actions of the mercenaries are qualified under Part 4 of Article 447, Part 3 of Article 110, Part 5 of Article 260 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (deliberate actions committed with the aim of changing the borders of the territory or the state border of Ukraine in violation of the procedure established by the Constitution of Ukraine, and also participation in armed formations not provided for by law in an attack on enterprises, institutions, organizations or citizens, which led to the death of people or other grave consequences). The maximum sanction under these articles provides for life imprisonment.

Pretrial investigation of offenses is carried out by investigators of the Main Investigation Department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

Earlier, the PGO had already registered criminal proceedings on the facts of the participation of 20 French, 16 Brazilians, Kyrgyz, Bosnians and Chileans in the armed conflict against Ukraine.