Two more British citizens face the death penalty after being captured by Russian troops in a pro-Putin rogue state in eastern Ukraine.
Andrew Hill, 35, and Dylan Healy, 22, face trial in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic [DPR]†
The couple has been accused of “mercenary activities,” according to the Russian news agency TASS.
Hill has been identified as a father of four from Plymouth and is said to have previously served in the British Army’s Lancaster Regiment.
Healy, of Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, has previously been described as a civilian volunteer trying to evacuate people from war-ravaged Ukraine.
Two other Britons, Aiden Aslin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, 48, are currently appealing a death sentence in the DPR that would have seen them shot by firing squad.
Hill was previously warned that he would likely face the death penalty.
This is subject to appeal, and under DPR laws, the convicts can also seek clemency from the area’s pro-Putin ruler Denis Pushilin.
But Pushilin is already convinced that he says he sees no reason to pardon Aslin and Pinner.
Meanwhile, Russian state media reports that Hill and Healy are not cooperating with their captors.
A ‘law enforcement source’ told TASS: ‘Criminal cases have been opened and charges have been filed for’ [acting as mercenaries] against British citizens Dylan Healy and Andrew Hill, currently in DPR custody.
“Investigative operations are underway as investigators look for evidence of the crimes committed by the British, as they are unwilling to testify and refuse to cooperate in their criminal cases.”
Van Healy and Hill were confirmed a few weeks ago that they were in Russian hands.
Healy was seized at a checkpoint south of the town of Zaporizhzhya with British father of two, Paul Urey – but there was no mention of him in the reports today.
The charges against Hill and Healy mean the couple will now face the death penalty if found guilty.
Western experts say they cannot expect a fair trial in the DPR.
The prisoners have been paraded on Russian propaganda media before — and one theory is that Moscow could use them as bargaining chips for an exchange involving the people now in Ukrainian hands.
Last month, a video was shown of Hill highlighting the moment he was detained.
The shattered and tearful prisoner, talking to his grandmother in Britain, says: ‘I am being held here as a suspected mercenary.
“The penalty here is death.”
He adds: ‘I want to go home, to my homeland, to my family, to my children.
‘I just want to go home. I will tell them the truth. I’ll tell them what it’s really like here.
‘I’ll tell them about the DPR and how it came to be.
“And I’ll tell them what’s going on here.”
Britain has refused to deal publicly with Russian proxy authorities in the DPR it does not recognize, preferring to ask Kiev for help. Russia has said the fate of the men is a matter for the DPR.
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