The Russian Armed Forces captured a former British army soldier fighting on behalf of Ukraine.
A Russian Telegram user posted two videos of the interrogation of 22-year-old James Scott Rhys Anderson. In the interrogation, Anderson portrayed himself as an uninspired recruit, saying he had only joined the Ukrainian International Legion after being fired from the U.K. army.
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“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.
“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,” Anderson added while shaking his head. “It was a stupid idea.”
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He revealed that he had flown to Poland and crossed the border into Ukraine by land. He said that his commander abruptly sent him to Kursk after taking his passport and other possessions.
“I don’t want to be here,” he said.
Russian milbloggers gloated over the capture.
“The Kursk group captured this piece of s*** from foggy Albion,” the Telegram user captioned the video. “Welcome to Russia, scum.”
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Others expressed surprise he was taken alive. Foreign volunteers are treated as mercenaries rather than enemy combatants, stripping them of typical prisoner-of-war protections.
Anderson’s capture was confirmed by a military source to the Russian outlet TASS.
“A mercenary from Britain has been taken prisoner in the Kursk area,” they said.
The U.K. Foreign office seemingly confirmed his capture as well, with a spokesperson telling the Telegraph that they were “supporting the family of a British man following reports of his detention.”
Anderson appears to be the first Western volunteer to be taken prisoner since the opening months of the war. Two British citizens, Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, were captured after surrendering during the Siege of Azovstal in Mariupol in April 2022. Though originally sentenced to death as mercenaries, they were released four months later as part of a prisoner swap.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the creation of the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, aping the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War. Volunteers from dozens of countries worldwide joined.
The formation has taken several hits in terms of public image and casualties, inaugurated by a Russian missile strike in the opening days of the war that killed dozens of volunteers in Lviv. One volunteer from Alabama defected to Russia. By May 2024, experts contacted by Business Insider estimated that the legion’s total strength had decreased to between 1,000 and 2,000.
