Russia sentences Briton to 19 years in jail for fighting for Ukraine

A Russian court said Wednesday a British man captured fighting for Ukraine in Kyiv’s offensive against Russia’s Kursk border region was sentenced to 19 years in prison.

The court press service for the city of Kursk said James Scott Rhys Anderson, 22, was found guilty of a “terrorist act” and acting as a mercenary, after he was captured while fighting in the region in November.

The Kursk court released video of Anderson being led into court in handcuffs wearing a winter hat and jacket that appeared to be prison uniform.

He nodded silently after having the sentence translated to him. He has the option to file an appeal.

Ukraine launched its shock cross-border offensive in August, the first time a foreign army took control of Russian territory since World War II.

Anderson, from the English town of Banbury, has spoken in several videos filmed by Russian officials after he was taken prisoner, saying that he went to fight for Ukraine’s International Legion after being sacked from the British army.

Kursk’s second western district military court spent three days on Anderson’s trial with the hearings held behind closed doors, the press service said.

Russia typically considers foreigners travelling to fight in Ukraine as “mercenaries”, charging them under its criminal code, rather than as captured prisoners of war with protections under the Geneva Conventions.

The court said Anderson admitted guilt and decided to take part in the “armed conflict for financial reward”.

Anderson earlier told Russia’s Izvestia newspaper he was paid $400 (370 euros) a month and about $60 a day while on combat missions.

He was charged with “committing a terrorist act” as part of an organised group, with investigators saying he illegally crossed the border into Russia, caused “significant damage to property” and “destabilised” the activities of authorities.

The British man was told by the court he would spend the first five years of his sentence in a prison — where conditions are worse than in a penal colony.

He would then be transferred to a penal colony with “strict” conditions.

In 2022, a court in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine sentenced two British fighters to death for fighting for Ukraine, although they were later released in an exchange.