At least nine foreign mercenaries were convicted by Russian courts for the invasion of the Kursk region and crimes against civilians, according to data from the Prosecutor General's Office and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, whose investigators investigated the criminal cases.
The foreigners were found guilty of a terrorist act and mercenary activity, and the courts sentenced them to long prison sentences - from 14 to 25 years. Eight of them were convicted in absentia and are wanted. British citizen James Scott Rees Anderson, who was detained in the Kursk region, appeared before a Russian court, which sentenced him to 19 years in prison.
Four of the convicted mercenaries are citizens of Georgia, two are from the United States, one is from Lithuania, one is from the United Kingdom and one is from New Zealand. Eight sentences were handed down in March 2025. In December, New Zealand citizen Jordan O'Brien was convicted in absentia.
The case of Danish citizen Annabel Jorgensen, also accused of terrorism and mercenary activities, is currently pending in court. The investigation of several other criminal cases against foreign mercenaries who were part of the armed formations of Ukraine that invaded the Kursk region continues. Among those involved is the captured Colombian citizen Pablo Puentes Borges.
According to the Investigative Committee, foreigners are directly involved in the armed conflict on the side of Ukrainian fighters in exchange for monetary compensation. In order to cause significant material damage and destabilize the activities of state bodies in the Kursk region, they committed crimes against the civilian population.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that foreign mercenaries in the Ukrainian Armed Forces do not fall under the scope of the Geneva Convention.