Three Britons accused of being mercenaries in Ukraine will stand trial in Russia-backed court

Three Britons accused of being mercenaries will stand trial in a Russian proxy court in eastern Ukraine, two months after a British pair were sentenced to death.

John Harding, Cambridgeshire aid worker Dylan Healy, 22, and military volunteer Andrew Hill will be tried in the Moscow-backed Supreme Court of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), according to Russian state news agency Tass.

Tass reported all three men were refusing to co-operate with investigators. They will be tried alongside two other men from Croatia and Sweden as ‘foreign citizens accused of mercenarism’, a court representative told the agency.

Prosecutors in the self-proclaimed DPR allege all five men were members of the Azov battalion and other military units captured in Mariupol.

Tass also said 60-year-old Mr Harding had fought in Syria on the Kurdish side but had denied killing anyone.

It comes after a video shown on Russian television in April featured a man speaking with an English accent who appeared to give his name as Andrew Hill from Plymouth.

In June, the Russian-backed Donetsk court – which is not internationally recognised – sentenced British men Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner to death by firing squad in what the Foreign Office considers ‘sham judgements’.

The European Court of Human Rights has been forced to intervene in the case.

The Strasbourg-based human rights court indicated to Moscow that it should ensure the death penalty imposed on Mr Aslin, 28, originally from Newark in Nottinghamshire, and Mr Pinner, 48, from Bedfordshire, was not carried out.

It was also revealed last month that Paul Urey, 45 – another British man who was captured in the Zaporizhzhia region on April 25 – died on July 10 from ‘illness and stress’ in the so-called DPR after being taken to a prison camp in Ukraine’s east. 

The Foreign Office is understood to be actively investigating the situation regarding the captured men and is providing support to the men’s families.

A spokeswoman said: ‘We condemn the exploitation of prisoners of war and civilians for political purposes and have raised this with Russia.

‘We are in constant contact with the government of Ukraine on their cases and are fully supportive of Ukraine in its efforts to get them released.’ Amnesty International UK last month criticised Moscow for ‘exploiting’ the men’s capture.

The charity’s crisis response manager Kristyan Benedict said: ‘In exploiting their capture of Dylan Healy and Andrew Hill like this, Russia and its proxies in the Donetsk People’s Republic are already adding to a huge catalogue of war crimes they’re committing in this war.’

Meanwhile, the Russian foreign ministry on Monday issued a list of 39 newly sanctioned individuals – including David Cameron, Sir Keir Starmer, Labour MPs David Lammy and Lisa Nandy, Ian Blackford – Leader of the Scottish National Party in the House of Commons – and BBC presenter Huw Edwards – it said are no longer allowed to enter the Russian Federation.

Others in the British media on the list included ITV’s political editor Robert Peston, the Time’s columnist David Aaronovich, Sunday Times’ political editor Caroline Wheeler, TalkTV’s Piers Morgan and Guardian’s war news editor Dan Sabbagh.

Russia said the action was in response to UK sanctions issued against Russian ministers, officials and members of influential families linked to the Kremlin following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

London has been one of Kyiv’s most vocal supporters after President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine on February 24.

Russia’s foreign ministry said the citizens listed ‘contribute to the hostile course of London aimed at the demonisation of our country and its international isolation’.

‘The choice in favour of confrontation is the conscious decision of the British political establishment, which bears all responsibility for the consequences,’ the ministry added.

Moscow has banned several dozen British citizens – mostly politicians and journalists – from entering Russia since the start of its military campaign in Ukraine.

In a separate development on Monday, the General Prosecutor’s Office designated the Calvert 22 Foundation, a UK not-for-profit group, an ‘undesirable’ organisation.

The group was founded in 2009 by a Russia-born economist, Nonna Materkova.

It published The Calvert Journal, an award-winning online magazine exploring culture in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia, and Central Asia. Its publication was suspended after Moscow sent troops to Ukraine.

The ‘undesirable organisation’ tag, which is reserved for foreign groups, allows Russian authorities to ban their work in the country. It also carries the risk of fines or prison time for Russians working with the organisations.