Dec. 18 (UPI) — A British man has been sentenced to 13 years in prison in Russia after he fought for Ukraine and was captured.
Hayden Davies, 30, was captured in Ukraine’s Donbas region last winter. He was tried in Donetsk, a city now occupied by Russia. Moscow accused him of being a paid mercenary.
Davies joined the International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine in August 2024, received military training and then fought against the Russian army in Donetsk, the office of Russia’s Prosecutor General said. He was captured carrying a U.S.-made assault rifle with ammunition, it said.
The United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said it strongly condemned the sentence “on false charges.” It said Davies is a prisoner of war.
“We demand that Russia respect these obligations, including those under the Geneva Conventions, and stop using prisoners of war for political and propaganda purposes,” it said.
The Russian prosecutor’s office released video footage of a man with a British accent speaking via translator from inside a cage. He said he was a member of the Ukrainian Army’s foreign legion and traveled to Ukraine by bus via Poland.
When asked if he pleaded guilty to the charge, he said “yeah” and nodded his head, though it’s not clear if he was forced to say it.
When he went missing, he was believed to be dead until Russia released a video of him speaking about his time in Ukraine.
Earlier this year, another British man, 22-year-old James Anderson, was captured and sentenced to 19 years in a Russian prison for terrorism and mercenary activity.
