On 29 January 2025, Russian independent media reported that a court in Kursk had placed British journalist Jerome Starkey, who works for newspaper The Sun, under arrest in absentia on charges of illegally crossing the Russian border.
The charges were formulated following a trip by Starkey to Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region, which Ukrainian forces had taken control of at the time. Similar criminal cases were earlier opened against other foreign reporters who traveled to Sudzha for reporting work. If found guilty, Starkey would face a sentence of up to five years in prison in absentia according to Russia’s criminal code.
The decision came amidst a Ukrainian military offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, in the course of which Ukraine captured several settlements near its border. Ukrainian and international journalists later arrived to the area to report on the situation. Throughout August, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) initiated identical proceedings against at least seven other foreign journalists who reported from Sudzha, according to IPI monitoring.