A jailed Belarus activist and two groups from Ukraine and Russia have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for championing human rights and democracy.

The decision to honour Ales Bialiatsky, Russia’s Memorial and the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties (CCL) is a rebuff to two authoritarian leaders.

Russia forced Memorial to close last December, ahead of Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.

Bialiatsky was imprisoned amid protests against Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko.

Ukraine’s CCL has monitored political persecutions and crimes against humanity in areas of the country occupied or annexed by Russia.

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