British man captured in Russia is from Banbury, Oxfordshire

A court in Russia’s Kursk region has ordered British national James Scott Rhys Anderson from Banbury, who was allegedly fighting with Ukraine, to be held in detention pending an investigation and trial.

The ruling on Mr Anderson, identified by state news agency Tass and other media, was announced on Tuesday by court officials, who said in an online statement that it was handed down the previous day.

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The hearing took place behind closed doors in Leninsky District Court in the city of Kursk.

It was not clear from the statement what charges Mr Anderson is facing and whether he is considered a prisoner of war by the Russian authorities.

He was reportedly captured in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have seized territory following a lightning offensive in August.

It comes as Russia launched 188 drones against most regions of Ukraine in a night-time blitz, the Ukrainian air force said on Tuesday, describing it as a record number of drones deployed in a single attack.

Most of the drones were intercepted, according to the air force, but apartment buildings and critical infrastructure such as the national power grid were damaged.

No casualties were immediately reported in the 17 targeted regions.

Russia has been hammering civilian areas of Ukraine with increasingly heavy drone, missile and glide bomb attacks since the middle of the year.

At the same time, Russia’s army has largely held the battlefield initiative for the past year and has been pushing hard in the eastern Donetsk region where it is making significant tactical advances, according to Western military analysts.