Ukraine war: Britons held by rebels in Ukraine to stand trial

Three British men accused of being mercenaries are to stand trial in a Russian proxy court in eastern Ukraine.

John Harding, Dylan Healy, and Andrew Hill will be tried in the so-called Donetsk People's Republic, a breakaway region of Ukraine, Russian state media says.

The Foreign Office has been contacted for comment.

Ex-serviceman Mr Harding, originally from Sunderland, had been fighting alongside Ukrainian forces since moving to the country in 2018. In July he appeared in a video appealing to Prime Minister Boris Johnson for help.

Mr Hill has been fighting with Ukraine's International Legion.

Mr Healy had been volunteering in Ukraine as an aid worker when he was captured at a checkpoint in April, alongside Paul Urey who died in July while being held by Russian-backed separatists.

Russia's Tass news agency reports that the three British men have refused to co-operate with investigators and testify.

They are being tried alongside two other men from Sweden and Croatia.

The same court in June sentenced Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin to death. The Britons captured while fighting for Ukraine were accused of being mercenaries.

Their families insisted they were long-serving members of the Ukrainian military and not mercenaries.

The UK and Ukraine have condemned the sentences for violating international laws protecting prisoners of war.

The European Court of Human Rights has also demanded the sentence is not carried out.

Separatists in the eastern region set up the pro-Russian statelet in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea.

It comes as Russia banned BBC newsreader Huw Edwards, along with a number of other journalists, as part of its latest wave of sanctions.

Moscow's foreign ministry issued a list of 39 newly-sanctioned individuals who are now barred from entering the country, in response to UK sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Other journalists banned include TalkTV's Piers Morgan, ITV's political editor Robert Peston, and head of Sky News John Ryley.

Travel bans have also been placed on David Cameron, former prime minister, and Labour shadow cabinet ministers Lisa Nandy MP and David Lammy MP.

The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford MP featured on the list as well.

The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement: "As has been noted more than once, the pernicious actions of the UK in planting Russophobia, spreading false information about our country and supporting the Kyiv neo-Nazi regime will receive an adequate and decisive response from the Russian side."