Russian investigators open criminal case against US mercenary

The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against Robert Werthman, an American mercenary fighting in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Werthman is accused of committing a litany of crimes, including murder and terrorism.

In a statement on Wednesday, the committee said that Werthman illegally crossed the Russian border in September while taking part in Ukraine’s invasion of Russia’s Kursk Region.

While in Kursk, Werthman committed “a number of serious and especially serious crimes,” including murder, attempted murder, terrorism, property damage, theft, illegal use of firearms, mercenarism, and illegal crossing of the state border, the committee said.

The case was opened in absentia, and investigators are currently working to determine Werthman’s whereabouts.

Werthman has supposedly been fighting in the Ukrainian Armed Forces since 2020. According to unverified information gleaned from social media, he boasted about “trophy hunting” on the battlefield, and attempted to sell uniforms, watches, and even bones taken from fallen Russian soldiers.

Video footage purportedly filmed by Werthman in Kursk showed the American fighter vandalizing a school library.

Werthman is one of multiple American mercenaries believed to be fighting in Kursk. Earlier this month, the Russian Investigative Committee opened a similar case against Derrick Bales, a US citizen and owner of the Forward Observations Group, which refers to itself as a military-style brand that sells tactical gear and accessories.

Russian maintains that the Forward Observations Group is a private military company. On its Instagram page, the group has posted photos of Bales and other Americans fighting in Kursk and the Donbass.

”All foreign ‘specialists’ or mercenaries who illegally cross the Russian border will automatically be considered legitimate military targets for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned the US in August.

Ukrainian forces invaded Kursk Region on August 6, in the largest attack on internationally recognized Russian territory since February 2022. The advance was quickly halted by the Russian military, which has since retaken more than half of the territory initially seized by Kiev’s forces.

Ukraine’s top commander has said that the operation was a high-stakes gambit aimed at forcing Russia to pull troops from the frontline in Donetsk Region, but that Moscow did not take the bait. After almost three months of fighting, the Kursk assault has cost Ukraine more than 28,600 troops, according to the latest figures from the Russian Defense Ministry.

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