DONETSK, July 28./ITAR-TASS/. Defense minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Igor Strelkov has ordered commanders and soldiers of militia forces not to fire on Ukrainian servicemen raising white flags or otherwise indicating surrender.

Strelkov says those taken as war prisoners must be moved to special points for sending under guard deeper into militia-controlled areas.

In accordance with Geneva protocol agreements on rules of military operations, such persons must be provided with food and medical care. They must not be shot, tortured or abused. Violation of the regulations is viewed as a war crime, the minister's document says.

Persons voluntarily laying down arms and surrendering, and not having committed serious crimes in military operations in the territory of Novorossia (the Donetsk and Luhansk regions), themselves decide whether to return to their families in Ukraine, join militia ranks in the southeast or go to Russia.