Australian feared dead fighting with foreign legion in Ukraine
An Australian labourer who travelled to fight with Ukraine’s foreign legion after Russia’s invasion is feared to have died in battle in recent weeks.
Caleb List, 25, travelled to Eastern Europe after being rejected by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) when he applied to join the army.
Caleb List is believed to have died in Ukraine.Credit: Facebook
Fears for the Queensland man’s safety come just days after it was revealed that an Australian landmine clearance volunteer died while working in Ukraine.
Military and diplomatic sources said they believed List died last month while fighting in the Kharkiv region, but that his remains had not been recovered.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade declined to comment on List’s specific case, but a spokesman said the department was “aware of people attempting to travel to fight in the war and a small number of Australians reported as missing or deceased in Ukraine”.
Sources said the department was providing consular assistance to the families of several Australians missing in Ukraine.
The official Australian government travel advice for Ukraine remains at “Do not travel due to the volatile security environment and military conflict”.
List, from Gladstone, told SBS in 2023 that he was searching for adventure after being rejected from the ADF.
“I tried a couple of attempts to get in there,” he said.
“For obvious reasons, I got rejected, just a bit young and dumb, made some bad choices. But ... I wanted something new, like I was sick of the job, I was sick of just being a labourer.”
Caleb List on the Ukrainian front in February 2024.Credit: Facebook
He said he originally intended to join the French Foreign Legion but decided to help defend Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
He said he had seen his fellow soldiers blown to pieces while fighting.
In a separate interview with Deutsche Welle, he said he wanted to “push myself to the extreme”.
Sage O’Donnell, a 24-year-old from Victoria, was killed in action in Ukraine in December 2022 after signing up to fight a year after leaving the Australian Army.
It was revealed on Monday that 28-year-old Australian Nick Parsons died while volunteering for the mine clearance charity Prevail Together in the city of Izyum in the Kharkiv region earlier this month.
The charity’s co-founder, Chris Garrett, a British bomb disposal expert, was also killed in the incident, which severely injured another volunteer.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed his “deepest condolences and sympathies” to Parsons’ family.
“I can confirm he wasn’t a participant in the conflict, he was volunteering with a humanitarian organisation. I do want to remind Australians that Ukraine is a do not travel zone,” Albanese said at a press conference on Monday.
“The situation is extremely dangerous and we continue to strongly advise all Australians not to travel to Ukraine, under any circumstances.”
Russian authorities announced in April that Melbourne man Oscar Jenkins had been criminally charged for fighting in defence of Ukraine against Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
The Prosecutor’s Office for the occupied territory of Lugansk said it had “approved the indictment in the criminal case against 33-year-old Australian Commonwealth citizen Oscar Charles Augustus Jenkins”, accusing him of being a “mercenary in an armed conflict”.
Get alerts on significant breaking news as it happens. Sign up for our Breaking News Alert.