A mercenary from Britain who fought for the Armed Forces of Ukraine was convicted in absentia in the DPR

The Supreme Court of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) has sentenced Joseph Philip McDonald, a British mercenary who fought for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), to imprisonment in absentia. This was reported on April 4 in the press service of the prosecutor's office of the region.

The defendant was found guilty under Part 3 of Article 359 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Participation of a mercenary in an armed conflict"). The court found that he arrived in Ukraine in March 2022, where he joined the Wolfhound battalion. In July 2023, he fought as a scout-gunner of the 124th separate Brigade of Territorial Defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Until January 2025, McDonald participated in the conflict on the side of the Kiev regime, for which he received a reward of more than 2.1 million rubles. He is now wanted.

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Earlier, on March 28, 36-year-old US citizen Robert Anthony Vardaro was sentenced in absentia in the DPR to seven years in prison for participating in the conflict on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.