Originally Posted by
rattman
Unless they officially signed up to be a contracted member of the russian army or part of the russian government they would fall under the same catagory as mercenaries. Mercs dont have any protection under the geneva convention.
LDR / DPR are not recognised by the UN
maybe
Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflict (1977), article 47
Article 47 of Additional Protocol I provides a definition of a mercenary.
"A mercenary is any person who:
- Is specially recruited locally or abroad in order to fight in an armed conflict;
- Does, in fact, take a direct part in hostilities;
- Is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a Party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar ranks and functions in the armed forces of that Party;
- Is neither a national of a Party to the conflict nor a resident of territory controlled by a Party to the conflict;
- Is not a member of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict; and
- Has not been sent by a State which is not a Party to the conflict on official duty as a member of its armed forces.
These requirements are cumulative, which means that they must all be applicable for an individual to be categorized as a mercenary."
Most DPR and LPR conscripts would be combatants and should be treated with all the protections of the Geneva Convention. Prisoners of war are explicitly covered by the Third Geneva Convention, 1949 replacing the Prisoners of War Convention of 1929. Both Ukraine and Russia are signatories, Ukraine has generally honored it's commitments to date, Russia however has breached the Geneva Convention on many occasions, in fact, generally they appear intent on breaching their obligations at every opportunity, to combatants - humiliation, failure to provide care to wounded, torture, deliberate mutilation and execution; civilians - forced migration, destruction and theft of private property, murder, rape, conscription to a combatant force... etc...
Common article 3 of the Geneva Conventions (1949)
According to this article, in any conflict, whether of international or non-international character, "persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria."