Foreign office team formed to support the families of British nationals captured by pro-Russian forces during the war in Ukraine.
Five Britons are currently being held in Ukraine, two of whom have been sentenced to death in what the Foreign Office considers “bogus judgments”.
A court in the self-declared People’s Republic of Dontesk has sentenced two British men, Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, to death.
They both lived in Ukraine for several years and served in the regular armed forces when the full-scale war broke out.
A group of officials from the Foreign Office’s crisis management department spoke to journalists about the status of British citizens in Ukraine.
The officials said the lessons learned during the evacuation operation in Afghanistan applied last summer when the crisis in Ukraine deepened earlier this year, but the two conflicts evolved in different ways.
David Sharp, joint head of the Ukrainian consular team, said: “We have set up a team to care for the families of those detained in Ukraine.
“So we’re in regular contact with the families and giving them all the support and advice we can.”
We are doing everything we can to support the men and are in close contact with and help their families
The amount of aid that can be provided is limited because the State Department is not on site, he said.
The Geneva Convention stipulates that prisoners of war must be treated humanely.
Mr Sharp said: “We have expressed our concerns about the treatment of the men and that they should not be used for political gain, and that they are prisoners of war and should be treated under international humanitarian law.”
The British government recognizes the authority of the separatist forces currently serving the men in the Donbas region, which means there has been contact with the Russian government.
Mr Sharp said: “We don’t recognize the people holding them.
“The mock judgments that were being made about those guys — we don’t recognize the system they have.”
British nationals who volunteered to fight with the Ukrainian armed forces are considered Ukraine’s responsibility, he said.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are doing everything we can to support the men and are in close contact with and helping their families.
“We condemn the exploitation of prisoners of war for political purposes and have raised this with Russia.
“We are in constant contact with the government of Ukraine regarding their affairs and fully support Ukraine in its efforts to get them released.”