Questions over what awaits Australian after Briton jailed for 19 years in Russia

London: A Russian court has sentenced a British man to 19 years in prison on charges of terrorism and acting as a mercenary while fighting for Ukraine, authorities in the Kursk region said.

James Scott Rhys Anderson, 22, was detained in November while fighting with Ukrainian forces in Kursk, a month before the capture of Melbourne man Oscar Jenkins by Russian forces was confirmed.

Russia has sentenced British prisoner of war James Anderson, 22, to 19 years in the gulag after he was brutally captured in the Kursk region.Credit: Telegram

Russian authorities are yet to comment publicly on whether they intend to prosecute Jenkins, or whether he could be offered in any proposed prisoner swap.

Anderson will serve five years in prison, followed by 14 years in a maximum-security penal colony, the court said on Telegram. Prosecutors had sought a 20-year sentence.

Russia classifies foreign fighters in Ukraine as “mercenaries”, allowing their prosecution under its criminal code rather than granting them prisoner-of-war protections under the Geneva Conventions.

The International Committee of the Red Cross warned ahead of the sentencing that failure to afford prisoners of war the right of a fair and regular trial amounted to a “grave breach of the Third Convention, which itself entails criminal prosecution”.

Russia has been repeatedly accused of summarily executing Ukrainian POWs throughout the war.

The Second Western District Military Court in Kursk heard the case behind closed doors. Videos shared by court authorities showed a gaunt and frail Anderson being escorted through the courthouse and placed in a glass defendant’s cage. In one clip, he nods as an interpreter reads the verdict.

According to a Telegram post, Anderson “admitted guilt” to “incriminating acts, citing that he decided to take part in the armed conflict because of monetary compensation”.

British diplomats have vowed to work to secure his release, similar to efforts to free UK citizens Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and eight other foreign nationals, who were freed as part of a broader prisoner exchange in September 2022 in which nearly 300 prisoners were swapped between Russia and Ukraine.

Australian officials are also working with Ukraine and the Red Cross to push for consular access to Jenkins so they can verify his welfare. It is unclear where he is being held.

Craig Maclachlan, a deputy secretary at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, told Senate Estimates last week that the government’s view was that Jenkins was a Ukrainian prisoner of war.

“He should be treated as a prisoner of war,” he said. “He should be afforded all the rights of a prisoner of war, and the Russian Federation should meet all its obligations to Mr Jenkins as a Ukrainian prisoner of war.”

After erroneous reports of his execution in January, videos emerged of Jenkins being held by Russia’s military last month, showing the Australian suffering from a broken arm and apparently having his blood pressure tested, while his captors joke the positive results prove he is “not dead”.

Oscar Jenkins, from Melbourne, was captured by Russian troops late last year while fighting for Ukraine’s foreign legion.

The one-and-a-half-minute clip was posted on YouTube which had also earlier published an interrogation of the captured soldier where he outlined his various health problems and his wish for “more freedom”.

Jenkins was serving alongside other foreign fighters in the 402nd Separate Rifle Battalion, which is part of the 66th Separate Mechanised Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The Command of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine told Slidstvo.info last month that Jenkins had signed a contract to serve on April 4 last year.

He went missing on December 16 while performing a combat mission near Mykolaivka in Luhansk Oblast. On the same day, his name was added to the list of soldiers held in Russian captivity.

In the recording, Jenkins appeared frail-looking, reinforcing comments he made in a separate video where he told a Russian interrogator he felt “weak” and had “lost a lot of weight”.

Pinner, who has written a book about his ordeals and now gives lectures on surviving in captivity, warned there was no such thing as a fair trial in Russia.

“You won’t get a proper defence. You are always going to get punished, it is just a question of how much,” he said.

Pinner, who had joined Ukraine’s marines and was captured in Mariupol, warned foreign captives would likely suffer physical and mental abuse.

In a phone call between Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in late January ahead of the three-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky called for an investigation into how Jenkins ended up in Russian hands.

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