Associated Press – Russian troops have captured a British national fighting alongside Ukrainian forces in Russia's partially occupied Kursk region, state news agency TASS reported on Monday, citing anonymous law enforcement sources.
TASS and other media outlets identified the man as James Scott Rees Anderson. Tass served as a signalman in the British Army for four years before joining the Ukrainian International Corps, which was formed at the beginning of Russia's nearly three-year war with its neighbor, he was quoted as saying.
In Ukraine, Anderson reportedly served as an instructor for the Ukrainian military and was sent to the Kursk region against his will. Tass released a video of a man saying in English that he doesn't want to be “here.”
The report could not be independently verified, but if confirmed, it could be one of the first publicly known incidents of Western nationals being captured on Russian territory while fighting for Ukraine. There is.
The British embassy in Moscow said officials were “supporting the family of a British man following reports of his detention” but gave no further details.
Russia's Ministry of Defense did not respond to requests for comment.
The soldier's father, Scott Anderson, told Britain's Daily Mail newspaper that he was informed by his son's Ukrainian military commander that the young man had been captured.
Scott Anderson said his son served in the British Army for four years and then briefly served as a police detention officer before going to fight in Ukraine. He said he had tried to persuade his son not to join the Ukrainian army, but now he was worried about his son's safety.
“I'm hoping he'll be used as a bargaining chip, but my son told me they're torturing prisoners and I'm afraid he'll be tortured. It’s very scary,” he told the newspaper.
The Foreign Office said: “We have received reports of the detention of a British man and are supporting his family.”
The International Command for the Defense of Ukraine was created at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky immediately after Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The corps is a unit of the Ukrainian ground forces consisting mainly of foreign volunteers. Apart from the corps, Ukraine is recruiting foreigners into other units of its army, filling squads, companies and even battalions.
Early in the war, Ukrainian authorities announced that more than 20,000 people from 52 countries had come to Ukraine to defend their country from Russian aggression. Since then, the number of foreign fighters in the Ukrainian military has been classified.
Russian military forces launched multiple drones into Ukraine overnight, Ukrainian officials said.
Dozens of Iranian-made Shahed drones flew “toward and past” the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhya, regional director Ivan Fedorov said. Officials said the drone explosion and falling debris damaged several homes in the city and injured a 13-year-old boy. Footage posted by Fedorov in the aftermath of the attack showed badly damaged houses with windows blown out and roofs through.
In the capital Kiev, debris from the intercepted drone fell in the city's Darnitsky district, but there were no casualties, the local administration said Monday morning.
In the Mykolaiv region in the south of the country, drones targeted energy infrastructure at night, causing temporary power outages, regional director Vitaly Kim said. “Energy companies have already restored power to the majority of customers and repair work is underway,” Kim said, adding that there were no casualties.
Russian troops attacked the center of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city in northeastern Ukraine, on Monday morning, injuring at least 19 people, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Telekhov said the attack on the densely populated residential area was carried out by a modified S-400 missile, which hit “a courtyard surrounded by high-rise buildings.” The villa and vehicle were destroyed by fire. ”
