MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/. Western mercenaries won’t be able to hide behind their American passports from the punishment for their war crimes in Donbass and avoid trial, a member of the State Duma lower house of parliament told TASS.

"The White House was shocked by Peskov’s words about the possible execution of the US mercenaries in Donbass. <…> Did the decades of impunity and lawlessness across the world completely detach [the Western authorities] from reality and make them think they were special? Do you think that your mercenary cut-throat thugs will be able to hide from the just retribution behind an American passport?" First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for State Building and Legislation Daniil Bessarabov said.

He emphasized that all the war criminals will be tried in court and should expect "an objective public impartial investigation of all [their] deeds" as well as "just punishment according to the legislation of the Donbass republics." "You should be happy that they haven’t been torn to pieces on the spot by the relatives of those people they killed and tortured," the lawmaker concluded.

Earlier, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that the Americans apprehended in Ukraine were accused of mercenarism therefore "the scope of the Geneva Convention does not and cannot involve them." The Kremlin official noted that their actions "should be investigated and they should be brought to justice." That said, he didn’t rule out that the captured Americans may receive the death penalty in the DPR.

Last week, the UK’s Daily Telegraph reported that two former US servicemen, 39-year-old Alexander Drueke and 27-year-old Andy Huynh, were captured near Kharkov. On June 16, the US Department of State said the United States was ready for contacts with Russia regarding the American citizens detained near Kharkov who came to Ukraine to participate in combat. The US diplomatic agency reiterated its strong recommendations to American citizens not to visit Ukraine.