British ex-soldier sentenced to 19 years in Russian jail after being caught fighting for Ukraine
5 March 2025, 14:33
A former British soldier has been jailed for 19 years in Russia after being captured while fighting for Ukraine.
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James Scott Rhys Anderson, aged 22, a former British Army soldier who signed up to fight for Ukraine's International Legion, was caught by Russian forces in November last year.
The Kremlin said he was captured while fighting in the Ukrainian incursion into the Russian Kursk region.
Anderson was accused of committing terrorist acts in Russia, as well as crimes against Russian civilians.
He is said to have pleaded guilty but the trial was held behind closed doors.
Anderson will spend the first five years of his sentence in prison before being sent to a penal colony to serve the remainder of his term.
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After Anderson was captured in November, his father Scott, 41, said he was "so frightened" that his son would be tortured by his captors.
He told the Daily Mail: "I'm hoping he'll be used as a bargaining chip but my son told me they torture their prisoners and I'm so frightened he'll be tortured.
"We spoke on WhatsApp almost every day until he went on his most recent operation. He was acting as a signalman. James last came home only a month and a half ago.
"He said his Ukrainian commander had made a promise that he'd contact me if he was ever killed or captured."
Revealing how he felt when he received the call: "When he called me and sent the video I was in complete shock and in tears. I could see straight away it was him.
"He looks frightened, scared and worried."
Mr Anderson said he had urged his son not to go to Ukraine - but said that he enlisted because he "was dead against what was happening to the Ukrainian people."
"I didn't want him to go. I did try to persuade him not to go - my whole family tried to persuade him," he said.
"He wanted to go out there because he thought he was doing what was right."
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Dressed in army fatigues, the man speaking in an English accent said: "I was in the British Army before, from 2019 to 2023, 22 Signal Regiment."
He says in the footage he was "just a private", "a signalman" in "One Signal Brigade, 22 Signal Regiment, 252 Squadron".
"When I left… got fired from my job, I applied on the International Legion webpage. I had just lost everything. I just lost my job," he said.
"My dad was away in prison, I see it on the TV. It was a stupid idea."
The UK Foreign Office said earlier that it was "supporting the family of a British man following reports of his detention".
