The supreme court in Donetsk convicted Hayden Davies, who was taken prisoner in 2024, of participating as a mercenary in an armed conflict and sentenced him to 13 years at a maximum security penal colony, the prosecutor said in a statement.

A video released by the prosecutors showed Davies listening to the verdict from inside a metal cage.

He told the court via a translator that he came to Ukraine via Poland and that he was paid US$500 a month to fight.

Prosecutors said Davies travelled to Ukraine in 2024, where he received training before fighting against Russian forces before being captured at the end of the year.

The prosecutors gave Davies’ age as 30, but reports in the British media have identified him as a 31-year-old from the southern city of Southampton.

Since Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, several foreign citizens have been sentenced by Russia-installed courts in eastern Ukrainian regions controlled partially or in whole by Moscow.

In early December, a Czech was sentenced to 13 years in prison by a court in Lugansk and in November, two Colombians received the same sentence in a Donetsk court.