Russia opens criminal case against British journalist for reporting on Ukraine’s attack across border

Russia claims CNN journalist Nick Paton Walsh illegally entered Russia to document Kursk incursion

Nick Paton Walsh reported on Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk earlier this month (CNN)

Russia has opened a criminal case against a British jounalist and says it will seek his arrest over reporting on Ukraine’s assault on Kursk.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN’s chief international security correspondent, was said to have crossed the Russian border to film Kyiv’s incursion into Kursk earlier this month.

CNN, which on 16 August broadcast a report from Sudzha, a Russian border town currently under Kyiv’s control, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it would issue an international arrest warrant related to Mr Walsh’s case, as well as two other journalists believed to have travelled alongside him.

The maximum punishment for anyone found guilty of illegally crossing the border is five years in jail, the FSB warned.

A view of a Ukrainian military operation in Malaya Loknya, Kursk Region, Russia in this screen grab obtained from a handout video released by the 95th Air Assault Brigade (via REUTERS)

On 6 August, Ukraine launched a surprise cross-border incursion into Kursk from the Ukrainian Sumy region and rapidly advanced into Russian territory.

Kyiv’s forces have claimed to have taken more land in a fortnight than Russia has in Ukraine during this entire calendar year.

Ukraine’s army chief Colonel General Oleksandr Syrksyi claims his forces have captured almost 445 square miles (1,150 sq kilometres) of land in Kursk.

US journalist Evan Gershkovich was released from a Russian prison as part of a major prisoner swap with the US earlier this month (EPA)

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based think tank that tracks developments on the frontline, offers a more conservative estimate of around 300 square miles (800 sq km).

In Mr Walsh’s report, he spoke about the smell of death and seeing bodies decomposing in the street as well as people hiding in bomb shelters.

At the start of August, US journalist Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was released as part of a major prisoner swap between Washington and Moscow.

The 32-year-old was arrested in March 2023, with Moscow accusing him of “gathering secret information” during a reporting trip in central Russia. Western nations lined up to decry the trumped up nature of the charges against him.