Switzerland’s Kurt Pelda has been charged with illegally crossing the border alongside Ukrainian troops

A Russian court has issued an arrest warrant for Swiss journalist Kurt Pelda, who was charged with illegally crossing the border together with invading Ukrainian troops. If found guilty and apprehended, he will face up to five years in prison.

Kiev launched an offensive into Russia’s Kursk Region in early August, capturing the town of Sudzha and dozens of villages. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has claimed that the incursion across the internationally recognized border was an attempt to gain leverage for future peace talks. 

In a decision announced on Monday, a Kursk city court found that Pelda, a reporter with CH Media, was part of “an organized group” that in August 2024 “illegally entered the territory of the Russian Federation with the goal of filming a report about the incursion of Ukraine’s military units.” 

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Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has stated that foreign journalists embedded with Ukrainian forces were providing “propaganda” for Kiev and “covering up” crimes against civilians. According to Moscow, Ukrainian soldiers committed atrocities in Kursk Region, including the killing of 22 residents in the village of Russkoye Porechnoye. 

Zakharova said reporters were operating on Russian territory without visas. Moscow previously issued arrest warrants for several Western journalists who traveled with Ukrainian troops, including Nick Paton Walsh (CNN), Catherine Norris Trent (France 24), Alberto Rojas (El Mundo), and Nick Connolly (Deutsche Welle).

In January, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that the Ukrainian military had briefly detained Pelda and two other journalists on suspicion of “illegally crossing the border” into Russia the same month. Pelda told the CPJ he feared that Kiev would not renew his accreditation due the incident.