SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
By Rob Harris
London: An Australian soldier fighting as part of Ukraine’s foreign legion has been captured by Russian forces in the Donbas region and paraded on social media as a Western mercenary.
Footage of 32-year-old Melbourne man Oscar Jenkins, with his hands tied, was circulated on social media platform Telegram on Sunday. The footage shows Jenkins being slapped across the face by a man speaking in Russian.
Oscar Jenkins, a former Melbourne Grammar student, was captured by Russian forces while fighting for Ukraine’s foreign legion in the Donbas region.Credit: Telegram
Jenkins, speaking in both English and broken Ukrainian, gave his name and age, and said he was a biology teacher who had joined the armed forces because he wanted to help Ukraine.
Dressed in military camouflage clothing with dirt on his face, Jenkins underwent rapid-fire questioning from his captor about why he was in Kramatorsk, almost 700 kilometres east of Kyiv, and if he was being paid to fight.
“Where are you from?” said his captor in the video, a version of which was circulated with English subtitles. A confused Jenkins was then slapped across the face when he did not understand.
When asked his nationality, he replied: “I’m Australian.”
“Who the f— are you?” his captor asked, before saying “name?” in English.
“My name is Oscar Jenkins … 32 years old. Live in Australia and Ukraine.”
Speaking in Ukrainian, he then said he was a teacher and a soldier, before being slapped across the face again.
The footage of Oscar Jenkins, with his wrists bound, was shared widely by pro-Russian social media accounts.Credit: Telegram
This masthead has independently confirmed Jenkins’ identity. He is a former student at Melbourne Grammar, one of Victoria’s most prestigious schools. He graduated in 2010, studied biomedical sciences at Monash University and moved to China in 2015. Since 2017, he has been working as a lecturer at Tianjin college.
It is unclear when he left China and how long he has been fighting with Ukrainian forces on the frontline.
A school friend, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Jenkins was a good person – an intelligent, well-liked classmate who was a “great sportsman” who represented the first XI cricket and first XVIII football teams.
Jenkins’ LinkedIn profile lists him as a former member of Toorak-Prahran Cricket Club.
The interrogation footage was first shared by Alexander Sladkov, a Russian propagandist and military correspondent for Russia 1 and Russia 24 TV channels.
He said the Australian would now face trial and prison, while adding Russians were actively hunting for foreign fighters, potentially to secure prisoner swaps. He said Ukrainian units were listed as targets if a foreign language was heard in the radio interception.
Under Russia’s criminal code “mercenarism” can attract up to 15 years in prison. The Kremlin is reportedly handling almost 600 criminal cases against foreign fighters – mostly citizens of the United States, Georgia, Britain, Canada, Lithuania and Latvia.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government was seeking more information about Jenkins through Australia’s embassy in Moscow, cautioning that videos released by Russia were often laced with misinformation.
“We know that the Russians often put out information that isn’t right,” Albanese said at a doorstop in Sydney. “So our embassy in Moscow is working [to find out what has happened]. But in addition to that, Foreign Affairs and Trade are working here as well”.
This June 12, 2017 image from Instagram shows Oscar Jenkins. Jenkins, an Australian fighting for Ukraine’s foreign legion, has been captured by the Russians.Credit: Instagram
Assistant Defence Minister Matt Thistlethwaite issued a warning on Sky to all Australians not to go to Ukraine.
Dozens of Australians are believed to be fighting on the front lines in Ukraine’s war against Russia, but the federal government has not been able to provide figures.
When asked by his interrogator how he was being paid, Jenkins said he was paid Ukrainian hryvnia into a PrivatBank account, the nation’s largest bank. According to the International Legion recruitment website, monthly pay matches enlisted soldier pay in regular Ukrainian units, ranging from approximately US$600 a month for rear-line troops to $3300 a month while on a combat deployment.
At the start of the war, the federal government cited the Foreign Incursions and Recruitment Act to warn that Australians could break the law if they went to fight in a foreign conflict, leaving them exposed to sanctions if they ever came home. However, no one has been charged to date.
At least eight Australians have been killed since Vladimir Putin’s troops launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, including Victorian man Joel Benjamin Stremski, and Queenslanders Brock Greenwood and Matthew Jepson, who died while holding off Russian troops in the country’s east in October.
However, Jenkins is the first Australian known to have been captured by Russian or Russian-aligned forces.
Jenkins’ school friend said he had become “sort of withdrawn” since moving to China and had recently deleted much of his social media.
A passionate vegan, he uploaded a single video to his YouTube channel last year titled: “I will force Chinese people to be vegan.”
“The only people who are friends with me anyway are vegans,” Jenkins says in the video. “If you’re not vegan, and you’re my friend then you’re going to be vegan soon, or we’re gonna fight … and my mum, I’m still talking to my mum. Otherwise, it’s quite limited. There’s some help from the outside from family wanting to do stuff.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of Home Affairs have been contacted for comment.
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