Russia claims to have sentenced a 25-year-old Belgian man to six years in a penal camp for fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine.
An analysis by Belga News Agency suggests the man may be of Albanian origin and narrowly escaped a Russian strike on a Ukrainian training centre for foreign fighters at the start of the war.
The young man reportedly joined the Ukrainian foreign legion two years ago to fight Russian forces. Photos examined by Belga show him in a Voice of America report on a Russian attack on the training centre in Yavoriv, western Ukraine, on 23 March 2022.
Albanian media outlets say the man was born in Albania but lives in Belgium. He is also mentioned in a story by the British tabloid, The Daily Mirror, which claims Russian spies infiltrated the Yavoriv centre. This could explain why the man was charged in Russia.
The man was ultimately captured by Russian forces and sentenced in absentia on Thursday to six years in a Moscow penal camp. He was accused of “hostilities against the security forces of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics and against soldiers of the Russian Federation.”
The Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet been able to confirm the man’s identity or nationality.
