Prosecutions have been brought against the British men Dylan Healy and Andrew Hill for "mercenary activities"
by prosecutors in the pro-Russian, separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, the Russian news agency Tass reported.[/P]
According to this agency, which cited sources in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, charges have been brought against the two men under Article 430 of the Criminal Code.
The two men refuse to cooperate with the investigation, he added.
Many Westerners went to Ukraine, either to help defend the country against the Russian invasion or to provide humanitarian aid to the millions of Ukrainians who saw their lives upended.
On April 29, Russia's Defense Ministry released a video showing a wounded British man captured in Ukraine who said his name was Andrew Hill. According to the ministry, this man surrendered to Russian forces in the Mikolayev region at least 80 kilometres west of Donetsk. He carried a gun, wore a camouflage uniform and told interrogators that he was from Plymouth in southern England and had four children.
On the same day, the BBC reported that according to the non-profit humanitarian organisation Presidium Network, one of its volunteers, Dylan Healy, was arrested at a checkpoint in southern Ukraine along with another volunteer, Paul Arrey.
Last month two other Britons and a Moroccan were sentenced to death as "mercenaries" by a pro-Russian separatist court. The Russian news agency Tass reported today that two of them, Brahim Saadun and Sean Piner, have appealed the verdict and that the latter is asking for his sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment. The third, Aiden Ashlyn, has not yet appealed.
The revised Criminal Code of the Donetsk People's Republic, which came into force today, states that the death penalty will begin to apply from 2025. It is unclear, however, what this means for the three men.
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