Konnolli Nikolas Simon (Nicholas Simon Connolly)

In mid-August 2024, following the invasion of Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and Federal Security Service (FSB) opened a series of criminal cases against foreign journalists reporting from Ukrainian-controlled territory for illegally crossing the state border. On August 17, 2024, charges were filed against Italian journalists Stefania Battistini and Simone Traini. Their report from the town of Sudzha aired on the Italian channel TG1. They showed damaged equipment near the border and also spoke with local residents who remained in the town. "We entered Sudzha in the Kursk region during the Ukrainian army's advance. Civilian houses are intact. The noise of drones can be heard," journalist Stefania Battistini wrote on social media. On August 22, 2024, the FSB charged American CNN journalist Nick Peyton Walsh with illegally crossing the border after filming a report in the part of the Kursk region occupied by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. An American journalist was reporting from a destroyed checkpoint on the Russian-Ukrainian border and published conversations with residents of Sudzha. Criminal cases were brought in absentia against journalists from the Ukrainian television channels Mi Ukraina and Hromadske, Olesya Borovyk and Diana Butsko, who were filming from the occupied Sudzhansky district. On August 27, 2024, the FSB announced the initiation of criminal cases for illegally crossing the Russian state border against Deutsche Welle journalist Nicholas Simon Connolly and correspondent for the Ukrainian channel 1+1, Natalia Nagornaya. They were also filming in the Sudzha area of ​​Kursk. On August 28, 2024, a case for illegally crossing the state border was opened against Romanian correspondent Mircea Barbu for HotNews. He filmed a report on the occupation of part of the Kursk region by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. On September 2, 2024, journalist Askold Krushelnitsky from the British Independent visited the Kursk region and published an article on the publication's website. On September 12, 2024, it was reported that the Ministry of Internal Affairs had issued a wanted notice for Welsh, Battistini, Traini, Connolly, as well as Butsko and Borovik. In late September 2024, a criminal case was opened against US citizens Fletcher Young and Catherine Diss, correspondents for the Australian television channel ABC, for illegally crossing the state border. Young and Diss's report from Sudzha, where Ukrainian troops were stationed at the time, was published in early September. The journalists entered the Kursk region accompanied by Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers and spoke with local residents. In early October, the FSB opened criminal cases for illegally crossing the border against Kurt Pelda, a journalist for the Swiss holding company CH Media, and Catherine Norris Trent, a journalist for the French channel France 24. On October 7, 2024, the Leninsky District Court of Kursk, at the request of the Border Directorate of the FSB of Russia for the Kursk Region, ordered Simone Traini and Stefania Battistini to be remanded in absentia. They were placed on the international wanted list. On October 11, 2024, the Leninsky District Court of Kursk ordered Nick Peyton Walsh's arrest in absentia. He was also placed on the international wanted list. On October 24, 2024, the Leninsky District Court of Kursk ordered Mircea Barbu's arrest in absentia at the request of the regional FSB Directorate. On November 26, 2024, the Leninsky District Court of Kursk ordered Catherine Norris Trent's pretrial detention in absentia. According to Russian investigators, Trent, along with other unidentified individuals, acted as part of an organized group and illegally crossed the Russian state border in a Ukrainian armed forces vehicle, traveling to the Sudzhansky District of Kursk Oblast to film a report. She was also placed on the international wanted list. On December 4, 2024, the Leninsky District Court of Kursk ordered Nicholas Simon to be remanded in custody in absentia from the moment of Connolly's arrest. On December 6, 2024, the Leninsky District Court of Kursk ordered Diana Butsko to be remanded in custody in absentia from the moment of her arrest. On January 29, 2025, the Leninsky District Court of Kursk ordered British journalist Jerome Starkey to be remanded in custody in absentia from the moment of her arrest. According to Russian investigators, the man "entered the territory of the Russian Federation with the purpose of filming a report on the invasion of the Sudzhansky District of the Kursk Region of the Russian Federation on August 6, 2024, by armed formations of Ukraine using tanks, artillery, and other lightly armored vehicles." Starkey was also placed on the international wanted list. On February 6, 2025, the Leninsky District Court of Kursk ordered in absentia pretrial detention for journalists Young Fletcher and Diss Katrin. On February 12, 2025, the Investigative Committee of Russia announced the opening of a criminal case against Alberto Rojas, a journalist for the Spanish publication El Mundo. He was also accused of illegally crossing the state border of the Russian Federation. According to Russian investigators, in February 2025, Rojas, without documents authorizing entry into the territory of the Russian Federation, illegally crossed the state border together with Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen and was in Sudzhansky District, Kursk Region. On February 12, 2025, the Leninsky District Court of Kursk, at the request of the Border Directorate of the Federal Security Service of Russia for Kursk Region, ordered pretrial detention for British citizen, producer, and documentary cameraman Caolan Robertson. He was also placed on the international wanted list. According to Russian investigators, no later than November 11, 2024, Robertson, traveling from Ukraine, entered the Russian Federation in the Sudzhansky District with the purpose of filming a report on the invasion of Ukrainian armed forces into Kursk Region. He was charged in absentia with illegally crossing the Russian state border. On February 17, 2025, the Leninsky District Court of Kursk ordered pretrial detention in absentia for journalists Natalia Nagornaya and Olesya Borovik. They were also placed on the international wanted list. On the same day, February 17, 2025, the Leninsky District Court of Kursk ordered pretrial detention in absentia and placed Kurt Pelde, a correspondent for the Swiss publishing holding SN Media, on the international wanted list. According to Russian investigators, no later than September 1, 2024, Kurt Pelde, along with other unidentified individuals, along with an organized group from Ukraine, illegally crossed into the Russian Federation in the Sudzhansky District of the Kursk Region to film a report on the invasion of Ukrainian armed forces into the Kursk Region.