Ukraine war briefing: ‘Donbas Cowboy’ – Russians jailed for killing US volunteer on their side

Russell Bentley, 63, was grabbed and tortured by soldiers who thought he was spying for Ukraine; $800m US arms shortfall, says Zelenskyy. What we know on day 1,385

21:22 EST Monday, 08 December 2025

Three Russian soldiers were sentenced to up to 12 years in prison on Monday for torturing and killing Russell Bentley, a 63-year-old US national who had volunteered to fight for Russia against Ukraine. Bentley went missing in April 2024 near Russian-controlled Donetsk after his wife said he had gone out in the aftermath of shelling by Ukrainian forces. Investigators said the soldiers beat and tortured him to death, then tried to hide the crime by blowing up his body in a car. A military court in Donetsk gave two soldiers 12-year sentences and a third 11 years. The case embarrassed Moscow – which has lured foreigners to fight on its side – while attracting derision from pro-Ukrainian observers about the treatment westerners could expect if they volunteered to fight for the Kremlin. Russian authorities tried to portray it as a tragic one-off.

​

Nicknamed the “Donbas Cowboy”, Bentley was featured in a 2022 Rolling Stone article about his transformation from Texas leftist to “pro-Putin propagandist”. He had obtained Russian citizenship and had done some work for the Russian state-controlled Sputnik news service. The court heard that the soldiers found Bentley near a military repairs facility preparing to film the aftermath of the Ukrainian attack. They disregarded his explanation that he was a journalist, put a sack over his head, and beat and tortured him to death, it said. A photograph published in some Russian media on Monday showed him sitting on a bed next to an assault rifle, with a pro-Russian flag, a souvenir from Texas and a bust of Vladimir Lenin.

​

Ukraine is short of about $800m for US weapons that it had planned to buy this year with help from its European allies, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian president reiterated that for next year, Ukraine would need about $15bn for the Purl programme, which involves purchases of US weapons with European money.

​

Eleni Courea, Jennifer Rankin and Peter Beaumont write that EU leaders will meet on 18 and 19 December in an attempt to sign off on a long-awaited European Commission proposal to funnel £78bn into a “reparations loan” that would go to Kyiv next year, funded by frozen Russian funds. In London on Monday, Zelenskyy met with European leaders Keir Starmer of Britain, Emmanuel Macron of France and Friedrich Merz of Germany. They were joined on a call by leaders of seven other European countries, a senior representative from Turkey, and Nato and EU chiefs.



European leaders rally behind Ukraine in Downing Street talks

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Zelenskyy said he would travel to Italy on Tuesday to meet with the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who is both a strong supporter of Ukraine and favoured by Donald Trump. It comes after European leaders rallied behind Zelenskyy as he visited London. Downing Street said “positive progress” was made on using seized Russian funds to help Ukraine.

​

Zelenskyy said on Monday that Kyiv had no legal or moral right to give up land to Russia in any deal to stop the war. “Do we envision ceding territories? We have no legal right to do so, under Ukrainian law, our constitution and international law. And we don’t have any moral right either.”

​

Zelenskyy said the US was trying to find a compromise on the issue. “Russia is insisting that we give up territories, but we don’t want to cede anything. We are fighting for that, as you well know. There are difficult problems concerning the territories and so far there has been no compromise.”

​

After his London meetings, Zelenskyy travelled to Brussels to hold talks with heads of Nato and the European Commission before heading on to Italy. “Ukraine’s sovereignty must be respected. Ukraine’s security must be guaranteed, in the long term, as a first line of defence for our [European] Union,” said the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the European Council president, Antonio Costa.

​

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, said no further meetings between Putin and Trump were expected before the new year, the Russian state news agency Tass reported. “For the moment, we don’t know the outcome of talks between the Ukrainians and the Americans in Florida,” another Russian news agency, RIA, quoted Peskov as saying. “When we get word, it will be clear how and in what direction we are to act next.”

​

Russian drones attacked the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy late on Monday in the second major strike on the city in 24 hours, triggering a power outage, the regional governor said. “There is no electricity in Sumy. Some critical infrastructure is operating on reserve power sources.” Earlier on Monday, Oleh Hryhorov said, Russian drones struck an apartment block in the city, injuring seven people.



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Three Russian soldiers were sentenced to up to 12 years in prison on Monday for torturing and killing Russell Bentley, a 63-year-old US national who had volunteered to fight for Russia against Ukraine. Bentley went missing in April 2024 near Russian-controlled Donetsk after his wife said he had gone out in the aftermath of shelling by Ukrainian forces. Investigators said the soldiers beat and tortured him to death, then tried to hide the crime by blowing up his body in a car. A military court in Donetsk gave two soldiers 12-year sentences and a third 11 years. The case embarrassed Moscow – which has lured foreigners to fight on its side – while attracting derision from pro-Ukrainian observers about the treatment westerners could expect if they volunteered to fight for the Kremlin. Russian authorities tried to portray it as a tragic one-off.

​

Nicknamed the “Donbas Cowboy”, Bentley was featured in a 2022 Rolling Stone article about his transformation from Texas leftist to “pro-Putin propagandist”. He had obtained Russian citizenship and had done some work for the Russian state-controlled Sputnik news service. The court heard that the soldiers found Bentley near a military repairs facility preparing to film the aftermath of the Ukrainian attack. They disregarded his explanation that he was a journalist, put a sack over his head, and beat and tortured him to death, it said. A photograph published in some Russian media on Monday showed him sitting on a bed next to an assault rifle, with a pro-Russian flag, a souvenir from Texas and a bust of Vladimir Lenin.

​

Ukraine is short of about $800m for US weapons that it had planned to buy this year with help from its European allies, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian president reiterated that for next year, Ukraine would need about $15bn for the Purl programme, which involves purchases of US weapons with European money.

​

Eleni Courea, Jennifer Rankin and Peter Beaumont write that EU leaders will meet on 18 and 19 December in an attempt to sign off on a long-awaited European Commission proposal to funnel £78bn into a “reparations loan” that would go to Kyiv next year, funded by frozen Russian funds. In London on Monday, Zelenskyy met with European leaders Keir Starmer of Britain, Emmanuel Macron of France and Friedrich Merz of Germany. They were joined on a call by leaders of seven other European countries, a senior representative from Turkey, and Nato and EU chiefs.



Three Russian soldiers were sentenced to up to 12 years in prison on Monday for torturing and killing Russell Bentley, a 63-year-old US national who had volunteered to fight for Russia against Ukraine. Bentley went missing in April 2024 near Russian-controlled Donetsk after his wife said he had gone out in the aftermath of shelling by Ukrainian forces. Investigators said the soldiers beat and tortured him to death, then tried to hide the crime by blowing up his body in a car. A military court in Donetsk gave two soldiers 12-year sentences and a third 11 years. The case embarrassed Moscow – which has lured foreigners to fight on its side – while attracting derision from pro-Ukrainian observers about the treatment westerners could expect if they volunteered to fight for the Kremlin. Russian authorities tried to portray it as a tragic one-off.

​

Nicknamed the “Donbas Cowboy”, Bentley was featured in a 2022 Rolling Stone article about his transformation from Texas leftist to “pro-Putin propagandist”. He had obtained Russian citizenship and had done some work for the Russian state-controlled Sputnik news service. The court heard that the soldiers found Bentley near a military repairs facility preparing to film the aftermath of the Ukrainian attack. They disregarded his explanation that he was a journalist, put a sack over his head, and beat and tortured him to death, it said. A photograph published in some Russian media on Monday showed him sitting on a bed next to an assault rifle, with a pro-Russian flag, a souvenir from Texas and a bust of Vladimir Lenin.

​

Ukraine is short of about $800m for US weapons that it had planned to buy this year with help from its European allies, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian president reiterated that for next year, Ukraine would need about $15bn for the Purl programme, which involves purchases of US weapons with European money.

​

Eleni Courea, Jennifer Rankin and Peter Beaumont write that EU leaders will meet on 18 and 19 December in an attempt to sign off on a long-awaited European Commission proposal to funnel £78bn into a “reparations loan” that would go to Kyiv next year, funded by frozen Russian funds. In London on Monday, Zelenskyy met with European leaders Keir Starmer of Britain, Emmanuel Macron of France and Friedrich Merz of Germany. They were joined on a call by leaders of seven other European countries, a senior representative from Turkey, and Nato and EU chiefs.



Three Russian soldiers were sentenced to up to 12 years in prison on Monday for torturing and killing Russell Bentley, a 63-year-old US national who had volunteered to fight for Russia against Ukraine. Bentley went missing in April 2024 near Russian-controlled Donetsk after his wife said he had gone out in the aftermath of shelling by Ukrainian forces. Investigators said the soldiers beat and tortured him to death, then tried to hide the crime by blowing up his body in a car. A military court in Donetsk gave two soldiers 12-year sentences and a third 11 years. The case embarrassed Moscow – which has lured foreigners to fight on its side – while attracting derision from pro-Ukrainian observers about the treatment westerners could expect if they volunteered to fight for the Kremlin. Russian authorities tried to portray it as a tragic one-off.

​

Nicknamed the “Donbas Cowboy”, Bentley was featured in a 2022 Rolling Stone article about his transformation from Texas leftist to “pro-Putin propagandist”. He had obtained Russian citizenship and had done some work for the Russian state-controlled Sputnik news service. The court heard that the soldiers found Bentley near a military repairs facility preparing to film the aftermath of the Ukrainian attack. They disregarded his explanation that he was a journalist, put a sack over his head, and beat and tortured him to death, it said. A photograph published in some Russian media on Monday showed him sitting on a bed next to an assault rifle, with a pro-Russian flag, a souvenir from Texas and a bust of Vladimir Lenin.

​

Ukraine is short of about $800m for US weapons that it had planned to buy this year with help from its European allies, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian president reiterated that for next year, Ukraine would need about $15bn for the Purl programme, which involves purchases of US weapons with European money.

​

Eleni Courea, Jennifer Rankin and Peter Beaumont write that EU leaders will meet on 18 and 19 December in an attempt to sign off on a long-awaited European Commission proposal to funnel £78bn into a “reparations loan” that would go to Kyiv next year, funded by frozen Russian funds. In London on Monday, Zelenskyy met with European leaders Keir Starmer of Britain, Emmanuel Macron of France and Friedrich Merz of Germany. They were joined on a call by leaders of seven other European countries, a senior representative from Turkey, and Nato and EU chiefs.

”

Excerpt From

“Ukraine war briefing: ‘Donbas Cowboy’ – Russians jailed for killing US volunteer on their side”

Warren Murray

The Guardian

https://apple.news/AjofMTAp2SSmjFaoudIe40A

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