British mercenary captured in Russia’s Kursk – media
A 22-year-old who served as a signalman in the British Army until 2023, has reportedly been captured in Russia’s Kursk Region while fighting with the Ukrainian International Legion, which consists of foreign recruits considered mercenaries by Moscow.
Russian forces captured the individual, identified as James Scott Rhys Anderson, near the village of Plekhovo, approximately 5km inside Russian territory, according to reports from RIA Novosti and TASS. Several videos of his interrogation have been published by Russian Telegram channels.
Anderson stated that he served in the British Army as a signalman in the 1st Signal Brigade, 22 Signal Regiment, 252 Squadron from 2019 to 2023. After leaving the military, he apparently faced financial difficulties and decided to join Kiev’s International Legion after seeing an advertisement on TV.
“It was a stupid idea,” he said. “I had just lost everything – my job, and my dad was away in prison.”
He said he applied online to join the Ukrainian foreign mercenary force, then flew from London to Krakow, Poland, before taking a bus to Medyka on the Ukraine border. Asked how he ended up fighting on Russian soil, Anderson claimed in another video that his commanders sent him there against his will.
“I don’t want to be here,” he told the interrogators, insisting that his commanders took his “s**t,” including his passport and smartphone, and told him to “get into the car.”
The UK Ministry of Defense has declined to comment on the capture of the former serviceman, while the Foreign Office said it is “supporting the family of a British man following reports of his detention,” according to The Guardian.
Earlier this month, the family of a 22-year-old British man from Gunnislake, Cornwall disclosed that he had been killed while fighting for Kiev at an “undisclosed location” less than two months after his birthday.
Kiev deployed some of its best-armed and most experienced troops across the Russian border in August, hoping to slow down Moscow's advancements elsewhere on the front line and gain a bargaining chip in future negotiations.
Since then, however, Ukrainian forces have not only been losing ground in Donbass at an increasing pace, but have also suffered more than 34,500 casualties and lost hundreds of tanks in Kursk, according to the Russian military.
Kiev is struggling to replenish its ranks, as the flow of volunteer fighters has long dwindled, yet it has repeatedly rejected any compromise with Moscow. Russia says Ukrainians are being used as ‘cannon fodder’ in a Western proxy war and that the country’s leader, Vladimir Zelensky, is complicit in the slaughter, as he seeks to hold on to power.
Moscow has described the incursion as a significant turning point in the conflict, stating that no peace talks can occur until all Ukrainian troops are pushed out of Kursk Region.
The UK, however, remains committed to supporting Kiev “for as long as it takes” to prevail, Defense Secretary John Healey said in a recent post on X. London has also followed the lead of the US in allowing Kiev to fire Western-supplied missiles deep into Russian territory, marking another escalation in the conflict.
