Online Romance Leads to Russia

A 23-year-old Romanian man who grew up in England has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in Russia for allegedly spying for Ukraine, in a case raising questions about the circumstances of his arrest and the evidence used against him.

David Adrian Kercso was living in Reading, west of London, where he worked for an electronics recycling company, when he met a woman named Valeria online in late 2023.

According to accounts Kercso gave his family, the relationship developed into a romance, prompting him to travel via Turkey in August 2024 to meet her.

The couple reportedly met in Sochi, a city in southern Russia, before travelling to Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia controlled by separatist authorities.

Kercso’s mother, Julia Kercso, said she had warned her son against travelling to the region because of the risks associated with the conflict.

“I told him to not go there because it’s very dangerous, because it’s a war,” she told Reuters.

Disappearance Followed by Arrest Announcement

Kercso had planned to return home on November 28, 2024, but stopped responding to calls and messages on that day.

In letters subsequently sent to his family from prison, he said he had been arrested in Abkhazia.

The region’s separatist security agency announced his detention on December 13, 2024, releasing a video showing him in custody and apparently confessing to having contact with Ukrainian intelligence.

In the footage, Kercso was shown saying he had been instructed to film military sites in Abkhazia using a drone.

However, Kercso later wrote that the confession had been dictated to him by his captors. He alleged that he was promised he would be sent home if he memorised and repeated the statement on camera.

Instead, he said, he was taken to the border and transferred to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

Court records reviewed by Reuters show that Kercso appeared before a judge at Sochi’s Khostinsky District Court on December 14, 2024, one day after the Abkhazian authorities announced his arrest.

Russian Arrest Video Raises Questions

The FSB later released another video purporting to show Kercso being arrested in a park in Sochi.

The footage shows two security agents emerging from a van and forcing him to the ground before questioning him about his identity.

However, a Reuters investigation found that the video was apparently filmed months after his actual detention.

Kercso said in letters to his family that FSB officers woke him early one morning in mid-April 2025 and took him from prison to a nearby park to film the staged arrest.

Reuters’ examination of the footage found that vegetation, pathways, lamp posts and other visible features matched a location along the Matsesta River in Sochi. The analysis was consistent with Kercso’s account that the footage was recorded after he had already spent months in custody.

Court records documented 10 appearances over the four months following his initial appearance in December 2024, during which his detention was repeatedly extended.

Russian lawyer Evgeny Smirnov, who is familiar with the case, told Reuters that staging arrest scenes after suspects had already been detained was a practice seen in other cases.

The FSB did not respond to Reuters’ questions about why it released footage portraying Kercso’s arrest as a new event when he had already been in custody for months.

Sentenced for Allegedly Passing Military Information

The FSB accused Kercso of transmitting information about the locations of Russian air-defence systems in Sochi to Ukrainian intelligence during the summer of 2024.

The agency released footage showing him apparently confessing to the allegation.

Kercso has denied the accusations, saying the confession was coerced and the allegations fabricated.

“None of that happened, they stole my life for no reason and fabricated everything,” he wrote in a letter.

He also alleged that he was beaten, tortured and held in isolation after being transferred to Russian custody. Reuters said it could not independently verify those allegations.

Kercso was sentenced to 15 years in prison earlier in 2026. He hopes to appeal his conviction.

Family Seeks Answers as Authorities Remain Silent

Kercso’s family has expressed concern over the circumstances surrounding his detention and the events that followed his trip to the Black Sea region.

Reuters sought comments from the FSB, the Abkhazian separatist security agency, the Russian embassy in London, and the Romanian and Ukrainian foreign ministries. None responded to the requests.

The woman Kercso travelled to meet also did not respond to requests for comment.

His mother said the family had been alarmed by his decision to travel to a region affected by conflict, while Kercso has acknowledged in correspondence that he regrets the journey.

“Now I know that coming here was a huge mistake,” he wrote. “I was blinded by love and didn’t see the warning signs.”

The case continues to raise questions about the circumstances of Kercso’s detention, the use of recorded confessions and the release of footage that appeared to depict an arrest months after it had taken place.