Dramatic footage captured the moment a British soldier declared he was going to gun down Russian troops on the battlefield before he was apprehended.
James Anderson, 22, was seen in the clip watching on as heavily armed Russian soldiers approached him and his team as he threatened:‘I’m gonna f****** shoot them.’
But the young fighter, and British prisoner of war, is ordered in his woodland hideaway: ‘Stop stop stop stop stop! No more!’
He and his fellow Ukrainian fighters quickly become overwhelmed by Russian troops grabbing back territory in Kursk region as the video showed dozens of gun-wielding soldiers emerging from behind the surrounding trees.
Anderson, from Banbury, Oxfordshire, is seen in the newly-released footage from his body armour camera as he surrenders to the Russians.
He is ordered by his captors: ‘Put your machine gun down, put it down!’
He is then told: ‘Get down, lie down! Down! Lie down!’
Anderson frantically admits there are two grenades on him, and he is disarmed.
New footage shows British POW James Anderson threatening to shoot Russian troops as they approached the group in Kursk
The Brit realises he is surrounded and is ordered by Russian soldiers to drop his machine gun
The Russians could be seen lurking in the trees before closing in on Anderson and his team
James Scott Rhys Anderson was sentenced last month to 19 years imprisonment
A Russian voice yelled: ‘Keep him at gunpoint! Get down on your back!’
The Brit tells the Russian Black Sea marines that some part of his military kit is American.
One of the Russian soldiers demands another on his team to: ‘Take his armoured vest off. Hold his hand.’
Anderson is ordered: ‘Hold still, give me your hands.’
The British man was held in November, but the footage has only emerged now.
He was earlier paraded on Putin’s propaganda TV.
Late last month he was sentenced to 19 years in jail in Russia’s hellhole penal system after being charged with terrorist and mercenary offences.
The court said he should serve the first five years of his sentence in a harsh prison and the remainder in a bleak penal colony.
Investigators accused Anderson of illegally crossing into Kursk in November as part of an armed group that committed unspecified ‘criminal acts against civilians’.
Russian state media then published footage showing him being led in handcuffs and locked in a cage where defendants in Russian court cases are held.
It reportedly showed Anderson saying he had served in the British army from 2019 to 2023 before deciding to join the foreign legion of Ukraine’s armed forces.
His father Scott Anderson told the Daily Mail: ‘I just feel his life’s over. At 22, 19 years is a long time to get. It’s going to be difficult for him not being able to contact his family, and it’s heartbreaking for me and his mum.
His father has said he fears his son’s life is ‘over’
Anderson reportedly crossed into Russia in mid-November 2024 with firearms and explosives
A Russian ‘kangaroo court’ in early March sentenced British POW Anderson, 22, to 19 years in prison
‘I think the sentence is ridiculous. I’m hoping a prisoner swap can be made. I’m only praying that something can be done to get him home.’
The Foreign Office said: ‘We strongly condemn the sentencing of James Anderson, a British national, in a Russian court on false charges.
‘Under international law, Prisoners of War cannot be prosecuted for participating in hostilities.
‘We demand that Russia respect these obligations, including those under the Geneva Conventions, and stop using Prisoners of War for political and propaganda purposes.
‘We remain in close contact with Mr Anderson’s family and are providing consular support.’
Anderson had told state news agency RIA Novosti that it was wrong for Ukraine, backed by the West, to invade Russia’s Kursk region, where he surrendered.
‘We shouldn’t be here – the Russians really don’t want us here,’ he said.
A marine commander had earlier told Russian state TV of the moment Anderson was caught.
‘There was a foreign man organising the battle, then we found out it was a Briton,’ said the commander, call sign Bach.
‘We just came up and said, surrender lads, you’re surrounded.
‘The Briton immediately threw down his foreign machine gun.’
Five of six British prisoners previously detained in Ukraine by Russian-backed separatists were freed although one died while in custody.
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.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .