A former British Army soldier fighting for Ukraine has been captured by Russia’s forces in the Kursk region.
In a video widely circulated on Sunday, a man dressed in combat fatigues and speaking with an English accent identifies himself as James Scott Rhys Anderson, aged 22, from the UK.
Russia’s Tass news agency later reported that the Russian security services had confirmed the capture of Mr Anderson. In the footage, the captured man appeared to have his hands tied.
“I was in the British Army before, from 2019 to 2023, 22 Signal Regiment. Just a private, I was a signalman. One Signal Brigade, 22 Signal Regiment, 252 Squadron,” he said to the camera.
He said he regretted signing up to fight for Ukraine, adding that he had been sacked from the British Army.
“So when I got fired from my job I applied on the International Legion webpage. I had just lost everything, I had just lost my job. My dad was away in prison. I see it on the TV,” he said, shaking his head. “It was a stupid idea.”
Ukraine’s International Legion recruits foreign volunteers to fight against Russia. There have been unconfirmed reports of foreign volunteers fighting for Ukraine in the Kursk region of southern Russia, but Mr Anderson could be the first to be captured.
Mr Anderson also described how he had travelled to Ukraine from Britain, saying: “I flew to Krakow, Poland, from London Luton. Bus from there to Medyka in Poland on the Ukraine border,” he said.
Medyka is a village on the border used by foreign volunteers as a jumping-off point for Ukraine. The Ukrainian city of Lviv is roughly a two-hour drive away.
The UK Foreign Office said it was “supporting the family of a British man following reports of his detention”.
On the Telegram messaging app, Russian military bloggers gloated. Rustroyka1945, which first published the video, said: “The Kursk group captured this piece of s— from foggy Albion. Welcome to Russia, scum.”
Yuri Podolyaka, one of Russia’s most popular military bloggers, with more than three million subscribers, said Mr Anderson had been captured in the village of Plekhovo, which the Ukrainian army has turned into a “stronghold”.
“Soon the village will be completely liberated from occupation. There is not much time left there,” he said.
The Kremlin has launched an offensive with 50,000 soldiers, including North Korean troops, to recapture part of the Kursk region lost to Ukraine in August.
Kyiv’s forces have now reportedly lost more than 40 per cent of the Russian territory they seized after enemy counter-attacks, a senior Ukrainian military official told Reuters on Saturday.
Russian forces have previously captured British men fighting for Ukraine. In April 2022, Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin were captured after a siege at the steelworks in Mariupol on the Sea of Azov in southern Ukraine. Mr Pinner was also a former British Army soldier.
They were sentenced to death in a show trial by a court in Donetsk, part of Ukraine annexed by Russia, but were handed back to Ukrainian forces in a prisoner swap in September that year.
