Western mercenaries sent to help Kiev will not be given POW status, the Russian Defence Ministry's spokesman, Major-General Igor Konashenkov, said, TASS reported.

"All mercenaries sent by the West to help the Kiev nationalist regime are not combatants under international humanitarian law. They are not given POW status," he said.

He also said that all attacks by foreign mercenaries on Russian troops in Ukraine were carried out using weapons supplied by the West.

Konashenkov said that foreign mercenaries will face criminal prosecution if they are detained.