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A Moroccan man Ìýby Russian-backed courts in a breakaway region of Ukraine for fighting as a foreign mercenary was in fact a Ukrainian citizen and active-duty mariner, Rabat has said.

Ibrahim Saadoun, 21, was sentenced to death last week in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) on mercenary charges, along with,ÌýAiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner.

Saadoun "was arrested while wearing the uniform of the Ukrainian state army, as a member of the Ukrainian navy", Moroccan state media Ìýon Monday, citing a source at Morocco's embassy in Kyiv.

Saadoun said in a statement that he had joined Ukraine's military "of his own free will", according to the source.

Saadoun is currently in the custody of an entity that is not recognised by either the United Nations or Morocco, they said of the DPR.

The Moroccan diplomatic source's comments are the first official reaction from Rabat to the young man's death sentence.

Saadoun travelled to Ukraine to study aeronautics in 2019.ÌýHe became a Ukrainian citizen in 2020, after undergoing the year of military training needed to make him eligible to study aerospace engineering in the country,Ìýhis father Tahar Saadoun media.

Saadoun joined the Ukrainian armed forces because "he had a deep sense that injustice was being committed against Ukraine", one of his friendsÌý The Guardian.

Pinner, one of the Brits also handed a death penalty, had helped Saadoun via Facebook to join the Ukrainian armed forces, the friend alleged.

Saadoun surrendered in March while fighting in a small town between Mariupol and the regional capital of Donetsk.

He handed himself in voluntarily, the father said, adding thatÌýthe sentence would be appealed.Ìý

Ukraine was home to , mostly students, before Russia invaded the country on 24 February.

A Moroccan student was during Russia's bombardment of the Ukrainian port city of Odessa in April.

Like many other states in the , Morocco was cautious in its comments on the Russian invasion, instead calling for and end to the conflict and for dialogue between Kyiv and Moscow.