A British former soldier has been captured by Russian forces while fighting for Ukraine in Kursk, his family confirmed tonight.
The ‘mercenary’ fighter, James Scott Rhys Anderson, was paraded in front of the cameras and a short video clip published by Kremlin-backed sources online.
The 22-year-old’s father told the Daily Mail he was in ‘complete shock’ to discover his son’s fate and said he fears he will be tortured.
Scott Anderson, 41, said he and other family members had begged his son not to go to Ukraine before he joined up around eight months ago.
But he said his son would not be dissuaded because ‘he thought what he was doing was right’.
He said: ‘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.’
Speaking at the family home in Banbury, Oxfordshire, Mr Anderson Sr added he had been due to come home for Christmas in only a few weeks’ time.
The father-of-four said: ‘We spoke on WhatsApp almost every day until he went on his most recent operation. He was acting as a signalman.
James Scott Rhys Anderson appeared in the footage with an unkempt beard. Mr Anderson was paraded in front of the cameras and a short video clip published by Kremlin-backed sources online
James Anderson with his father Scott Anderson. The 41-year-old said he and other family members had begged his son not to go to Ukraine before he joined up around eight months ago
James with his sister. He had been in the Army for four years, having gone to Army Foundation College as a 17-year-old
‘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.
‘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.
‘I didn’t want him to go. I did try to persuade him not to go – my whole family tried to persuade him.
‘He wanted to go out there because he thought he was doing what was right. He was dead against what was happening to the Ukrainian people.
‘Since he went out earlier this year, he’s fallen in love with a Ukrainian although I don’t know her name.
‘I last spoke to him when I last saw him but we used to talk on WhatsApp every day. He’d tell me where he’d been and the things he’d seen.
‘He was alive, healthy. He sent me a video when he was at Sumy. Then he was being posted within the last week.’
Mr Anderson senior, who said he served a short prison sentence for a domestic matter at the time his son joined the Ukrainians, said he has been contacted by Foreign Office officials
Mr Anderson Sr said he said his son would not be dissuaded from going to Ukraine because ‘he thought what he was doing was right’
His son had been in the Army for four years, having gone to Army Foundation College as a 17-year-old
In the footage released by his captors, Mr Anderson can be heard describing his decision to go to fight for Ukraine in the Russian territory as a ‘stupid idea’
His son had been in the Army for four years, having gone to Army Foundation College as a 17-year-old.
After leaving the Army last year, he became a civilian custody officer for Thames Valley Police, prior to joining the Ukrainians.
In the footage released by his captors, Mr Anderson can be heard describing his decision to go to fight for Ukraine in the Russian territory as a ‘stupid idea’.
He states he was a former soldier with the British Army, in the Royal Signals corps, between 2019 and 2023, but said he was dismissed.
He said he then applied for the International Legion of fighters helping Ukrainian troops.
Ukraine made a surprise incursion into Russia in the summer and seized 500 square miles of territory in the Kursk region.
It has since lost 40 per cent of this territory, according to recent reports.
In the video, Mr Anderson said: ‘When I left, got fired from my job, I applied for the international legion. I’d lost everything, my dad was in prison, I’d seen it on the TV. It was a stupid idea’.
Mr Anderson, appeared in the footage with an unkempt beard, his hair closely cropped and wearing green combat fatigues, but with no visible bruises or marks of torture.
He described travelling from Luton to Krakow, Poland, before travelling into Ukraine.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘We are supporting the family of a British man following reports of his detention.’
In 2022, six British nationals – fighters Sean Pinner, Aiden Aslin, Andrew Hill and John Harding, and aid volunteers Dylan Healy and Paul Urey – were captured by Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine and threatened with the death penalty.
Father-of-four Mr Urey, aged 45, died in Russian captivity, while the other five were eventually released in September that year following negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, brokered by Saudi Arabia and involving former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich.
In a message to Mr Anderson, Mr Harding, 61, said: ‘I’d say to him, don’t give up hope. I’d hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
Mr Anderson senior, who said he served a short prison sentence for a domestic matter at the time his son joined the Ukrainians, said he has been contacted by Foreign Office officials
Mr Anderson Sr with James’s grandmother Jacqueline Payne
Ukrainian soliders fighting in the Kursk region. Andersen was captured by Putin’s forces in the Russian region where Ukraine holds several hundred square kilometres
Ukrainian soldiers in the Donetsk region of Ukraine
‘I’m sure there’ll be people from the Ukrainian side trying to negotiate his release but I understand it’s a lot worse to be captured now than when I was. There seem to be fewer negotiations going on.
‘When I was first captured, I was held in solitary but when they ran out of space, they put all us Brits together and we used to encourage each other.’
Mr Harding, who had been fighting in Ukraine for four years before being captured and subjected to interrogation and torture, added: ‘I was quite aggressive when I was first captured but it didn’t work.
‘If I was him, I’d be the grey man, try and keep my head down. You’ve got to give them (the Russians) some information but you try not to give them any information which could be of use.’
Mr Anderson’s capture comes just over a month after Russia’s defence ministry claimed that its forces killed two British ‘mercenaries’ in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said that the fighters were killed during an attack on the Ukrainian village of Mykhailivka, in the Donetsk region, which was taken over by Russian forces on October 13.
The defence ministry quoted the deputy commander of the Russian battalion that led the assault, Igor Krasilnikov, as saying: ‘There were two servicemen from Britain, mercenaries. They basically stayed in that stronghold.
In July, Peter Fouche, 49, a former London taxi driver, was buried after he was killed in June, as his unit clashed with Russian troops.
At the funeral ceremony, Ukrainian soldiers carried Mr Fouche’s coffin through Kyiv’s landmark Independence Square, the site of mass protests in 2014 that forced out a pro-Russian president.
Russian President Vladimir Putin records a televised address in Moscow
The burnt wreckage of a car in Kursk. Inside the region, it has been claimed that North Korean soldiers are fighting alongside Russians
Ukraine holds several hundred square kilometres of the Kursk region, which borders the northeast of Ukraine, but Putin’s forces are gradually pushing them back.
Inside Kursk, it has been claimed that North Korean soldiers are fighting alongside Russians.
The capture comes after a top Russian general, along with 500 North Korean soldiers, were allegedly killed by British Storm Shadow missiles in a devastating attack.
The strike launched by Ukraine on November 20 wiped out Lt-Gen Valery Solodchuk and also resulted with 18 Putin officers reported lost, with a further 18 wounded, it has been claimed.
Earlier reports suggested that a Kim Jong-un general had also been left injured in the attack as he commanded troops backing Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine invasion.
The strike carried out by Ukraine was the first time UK Storm Shadow missiles had been used blast targets deep inside Russia.
It is understood that the pinpoint missiles had hit a Putin command post and military facility with the scale of Russian losses now alleged to be enormous.
Russian Lt-Gen Valery Solodchuk (pictured) was reported to have been killed in the UK-supplied Storm Shadow strike by the Ukrainian armed forces on 20 November
This is the moment missiles believed to be British Storm Shadow missiles struck inside Russia
The strike carried out by Ukraine was the first time UK Storm Shadow missiles had been used blast targets deep inside Russia. One image following the attack showed a written indentation on a chunk of metal reading: ‘Storm Shadow’
Russian authorities have not yet confirmed losses which would be grievous to both Russia and North Korea if confirmed, and the reports are yet to be independently verified.
The Storm Shadows were targeted on November 20 at an underground military facility in Maryino on a Tsarist estate, in Kursk region.
New footage shows a Storm Shadow missile involved in the attack as it flew towards its target, it is claimed.
If true, the losses may explain Putin’s furious reaction – firing a new Oreshnik hypersonic missile at Dnipro, and his public boasts he had a new super weapon which was unstoppable by the West.
Moscow also threatened that the use by Ukraine of NATO-supplied missiles meant Putin could legitimately hit back with nuclear missiles.
The Russian officers reportedly killed are from Putin’s Southern and Eastern Military Districts.
The strike carried out by Ukraine was the first time UK Storm Shadow missiles had been used blast targets deep inside Russia.
US-based Global Defense Corp reported that 500 North Korean soldiers were killed alongside Russian officers, however, there was no independent confirmation.
Some 10,000-plus North Koreans are believed to have been moved across Siberia to the war zone after being ordered to serve Putin by their leader Kim Jong Un.
They are either currently fighting for Putin or about to be deployed.
Kim’s decision to inject North Korean soldiers into Russia to help in Putin’s bloody war has raised concerns among Kyiv’s allies who worry that the move may exacerbate what is already Europe’s largest conflict since WWII.
Images shared on social media showed what appeared to be fragments of a British Storm Shadow missile in Marino, Kursk, on November 20
US-based Global Defense Corp reported that 500 North Korean soldiers were killed alongside Russian officers, however, there was no independent confirmation (file photo)
South Koreans watch Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin during a recent meeting
The Storm Shadow missile attack last week hit the sanatorium of the Russian Presidential Affairs Directorate in Maryino, a former Tsarist estate, say reports.
Britain’s Storm Shadow missiles are capable of dodging air defences – making them a nightmare attack weapon for their enemy.
The £800,000 rockets use GPS technology to precisely blast targets, and can travel through the air at 600mph.
Storm Shadow missiles have already been used by Ukraine inside its own territory for some time, but Kyiv now appears to have been granted permission to use the weapons to strike within Russia.
Storm Shadow – called Scalp by the French – is a weapon equipped with a navigation system that once launched, descends to a low altitude to avoid detection before locking onto its target using an infra-red seeker.
On the final approach, the missile climbs to a higher altitude to maximise the chances of hitting the target.
On impact, it penetrates the target before a delayed fuse detonates the main warhead.
The strike comes after Russia issued a warning that British support for Ukraine could ‘lead to a collision between nuclear powers’ in a grave threat as President Vladimir Putin vowed to launch more hypersonic missiles at targets in Ukraine.
Putin has said he will fire more of Russia ‘s new hypersonic missiles at targets in Ukraine
A Yars intercontinental ballistic missile being launched as part of nuclear deterrence forces drills in Russia on October 29, 2024
Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launchers roll on Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in central Moscow on May 9
Andrey Kelin, Russia’s ambassador to the UK, cited American support for Ukraine to use Western missiles against targets in Russia, backed by Britain and France, in his warning that ‘this seriously escalates the situation’ and ‘can lead to a collision between the nuclear powers’.
The Kremlin suggested this week it was ‘entitled’ to fire upon ‘the military targets of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities’ in a thinly-veiled threat to the West, after the US gave its support for Kyiv using ATACMS missiles against Russian and North Korean forces in Russia.
After striking the Ukrainian city of Dnipro with an experimental hypersonic missile early on Thursday, Putin ordered the mass production of the ‘unstoppable’ Oreshnik, believed to be able to reach Britain in under 20 minutes.
‘There is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world today. And I will emphasise once again that we will continue testing this newest system. It is necessary to establish serial production,’ Putin said.
