AN EX-BRITISH soldier has been captured by Russian forces fighting for Ukraine.
The PoW was paraded by his captors in two separate propaganda videos posted online today.
He is said to have been taken prisoner during fierce fighting in Russia’s Kursk region.
Ukrainian troops are battling to defend the territory after a surprise assault across the border in August.
He gave his name as James Scott Rhys Anderson and his date of birth.
Anderson, wearing green military clothing, said he served in the British Army between 2019 and 2023 before travelling to Ukraine.
He goes on to tell interrogators he was a private in 22 Signal Regiment.
The detainee says he left the Army before applying online to join Ukraine’s International Legion.
He adds: “I had just lost everything. I’d just lost my job.
“I see it on the TV. It was a stupid idea.”
In a second video – believed to have been taken shortly after he was captured – his hands are bound in red tape.
He is asked by his interrogator how long he served in the British Army.
He replies: “I learn for one year and I stay for four years.”
The interrogator then asks: “Why you come in Russia?”
Anderson says: “Commander take my s*** and tell me to come…I don’t want to be here.”
Last night, former Brit PoW Shaun Pinner, who was captured at the start of the war, said he faces a “very dangerous” 10 days.
Shaun, 51, a former soldier in the Royal Anglian Regiment, was also paraded on TV by the Russians before being sentenced to death.
He was finally released as part of a prisoner swap deal brokered by former Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich.
Shaun told The Sun: “Anything he says is under duress – we must remember that.
“The video is important because the more people it goes out to, the more people know he’s alive and that enhances his chances.
“Someone now has a responsibility for his safety.
“But it’s important that information about his background is kept to a bare minimum.
“Russia will be hoping the video provokes a flurry of information they can use in interrogation.
“My job when I was captured was to get on TV. You want to be able to tell the world your condition, what you look like, who has got you.
“There’s no telling what has happened since then but this is a positive.”
The Foreign Office is understood to be in touch with the family.
A FCDO Spokesperson said: “We are supporting the family of a British man following reports of his detention.”
Geneva convention of PoWs
By Sayan Bose, Foreign News Reporter
GENEVA conventions are a set of international laws that lay the foundation for humanitarian laws for soldiers and civilians in modern-day armed conflicts.
The international rules for prisoners of war (PoWs) include:
- Human treatment: PoWs must be treated humanely at all times, and protected from violence, intimidation, insults, and public curiosity.
- Medical care: PoWs must receive adequate medical care, and seriously ill or wounded PoWs must be repatriated immediately.
- Living conditions: PoWs must be housed in conditions similar to those of the detaining forces, and their living quarters must be hygienic and healthy. PoW camps must be located away from combat zones, and clearly marked with the letters “PW” or “PG”.
- Communication: PoWs must be able to communicate with the outside world, including by writing letters and sending messages. They can also send “capture cards” to their families and the ICRC to inform them of their whereabouts.
- Release: PoWs must be released and repatriated as soon as hostilities end.
- Prosecution: PoWs cannot be prosecuted for direct participation in hostilities, but they may be prosecuted for war crimes.
- Personal belongings: PoWs may not be deprived of their personal belongings.
- Identification: PoWs are only required to provide their name, rank, date of birth, and serial number.
In 2022 two British-born prisoners of war were sentenced to death by Russia in a kangaroo court after joining the Ukrainian forces.
Heroes Shaun Pinner, 48, and Aiden Aslin, 28, pleaded guilty to “undergoing training with the aim of carrying out terrorist activities” in what was widely suspected to be a forced confession.
Shaun was captured during the Russian siege of Mariupol and later handed a cruel sentence in occupied Donetsk.
The former British Army soldier was freed in September 2022 as part of a prisoner exchange.
Aiden was also captured by Putin’s men in Mariupol, and released as part of the same prisoner release deal in September 2022.
Both men called The Sun’s news desk weeks before their conviction, declaring they were Ukrainian citizens serving legally in the nation’s army.
Recordings made when they called The Sun show they thought they were legal combatants entitled to be treated as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.
But speaking about the conditions of his detainment to the BBC, Aiden said: “It’s like some old Soviet sort of police thing.
“There’s no beds, just concrete floor, no toilet, and they give you like a tiny piece of bread a day, just one piece, and then they also give you a two-litre bottle to share amongst everyone, so you’d be lucky if you get maybe a quarter of a cup of water.
“So it’s just the bare minimum to just keep you alive, and then on top of this, you have people that will get taken out – they’ll find out something about them, and you just hear them being beaten.”
ESCALATION IN RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
Kyiv launched US ATACMS missiles into Russian territory overnight on November 11 – and British Storm Shadow rockets just two days later.
In retaliation, Putin fired the hypersonic “Oreshnik” IRBM at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday – with chilling footage capturing warheads raining down from the sky.
The Russian dictator then warned he could strike British and US military targets in his biggest threat yet.
In a televised address on Thursday, Putin said military facilities inside the UK and the US could become valid targets for the Russian forces as a direct response to Ukraine’s use of Nato missiles.
He said: “Russia considers itself entitled to use weapons against military facilities of countries that permit the use of their weapons against Russia.
“Since this moment, as we have underscored repeatedly, the conflict in Ukraine, provoked by the West, has acquired elements of global nature.”
The latest escalation has led to Britain and Nato meeting for emergency crunch talks about the conflict with Russia, after despot Vladimir Putin vowed to fire more hypersonic missiles into Ukraine.
