‘They know’: Aussie on Ukraine front lines

Intense footage of an Aussie soldier being wounded in a drone strike while fighting in Ukraine has been released among clips of his secretive missions.

Intense footage of an Australian soldier being wounded in a drone strike while fighting in Ukraine has been released among clips of his secretive missions.

The unnamed Aussie fighter, codenamed “Skippy”, has been recording combat operations on the battlefields of Ukraine for several months.

One undated clip filmed through his helmet camera shows artillery fire gradually getting closer to a deep trench he and his comrades sheltered in.

“They definitely know we’re here,” he says.

The footage shows several missions ‘Skippy’ took part in.

His group were pounded with artillery. Pictures: YouTube/Civ Div

The footage later shows large shells thudding into the ground just metres from the camera, sending dirt and debris into the air.

In another snippet from the front lines, the “Skippy” yells in pain as he is hit by shrapnel while walking through a wood.

The unit came under attack at the undisclosed location soon after soldiers exited an armoured truck.

“My knee!” one person can be heard yelling.

Skippy calls back: “Get into a pit, get into a pit!

“I’m hit.”

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Members of the Ukrainian military after a field training exercise in an undisclosed location. Picture: Roman Pilipey/AFP

This was taken from a 2024 mission when the soldiers were dropped off at the wrong position and quickly surveilled by drones.

It is believed Skippy and the other soldiers were wounded by a grenade dropped by one of the drones.

The Australian government has discouraged Aussies from travelling to Ukraine to fight, nevertheless, Australians continue to volunteer in various capacities, including combat roles and humanitarian support.

The dangers were highlighted by the capture of Melbourne man Oscar Jenkins by Russian soldiers late last year.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said there were “serious concerns” for Mr Jenkins’ health and safety.

Melbourne man Oscar Jenkins who was taken prisoner by Russian forces.

Another video emerged of Oscar Jenkins while Russian captors joke he is "not dead". Picture: NewsWire/Handout

Ukraine has offered via the US a 30-day ceasefire, but Russia has so far failed to respond, with European allies growing all the more impatient.

Underscoring how far apart the sides remain, Ukraine accused Russia on Thursday of violating a US-brokered agreement to refrain from targeting energy infrastructure with an artillery strike that caused a power outage in the city of Kherson.

The Ukrainian army meanwhile rejected Russian claims it had itself targeted energy sites.

“I think there should be a reaction from the US,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters in Paris.

He added that energy facilities had been damaged in a strike and that it was “unclear who is monitoring” the pledges to halt such strikes.

Russia ‘does not want peace’

European countries agreed at a summit in Paris on Thursday to ramp up rather than lift sanctions on Russia over its war against Ukraine, as Britain and France began sketching out plans to send a “reassurance” force after any peace.

French President Emmanuel Macron hosted the meeting of Ukraine’s European allies and President Volodymyr Zelensky in the latest effort to agree a co-ordinated policy after Donald Trump shocked Europe by opening direct talks with the Kremlin.

France's President Emmanuel Macron hosted a meeting of European leaders. Picture: Ludovic Marin/AFP

The US claims tentative progress towards a ceasefire to end the three-year conflict sparked by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

But as yet a peace deal appears far off and the meeting of over two dozen European heads of state and government also underlined differences within the “coalition of the willing”, with not all states signing onto the French-British plan to deploy troops post-war.

“He really wants to divide Europe and America, Putin really wants that,” Mr Zelensky said after the summit, adding Kyiv wants Washington to be “stronger” towards the Kremlin.

He warned “everybody understood and understands that today Russia does not want any kind of peace”.

‘Reassurance force’

There appeared to be consensus around the table at the Elysee Palace that sanctions imposed against Russia should not be weakened, and rather intensified, until there is peace.

“There was complete clarity that now is not the time for the lifting of sanctions, quite the contrary – what we discussed is how we can increase sanctions to support the US initiative to bring Russia to the table,” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has thrown his support behind Ukraine. Picture: Stephanie Lecocq – WPA Pool/Getty Images

In a separate briefing, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said lifting sanctions would be a “grave mistake” and “makes no sense” without a truce.

Mr Zelensky criticised “very dangerous signals” on that possibility, pointing especially to Saudi Arabia.

As well as boosting Ukraine’s own armed forces, a key pillar of ensuring security and preventing further Russian invasions could be to deploy European troops to Ukraine, although until now it has been far from clear how this could happen.

Mr Macron said after the summit that France and the UK were leading efforts to send a “reassurance force” to Ukraine after any end to the fighting.

“It does not have unanimity today, but we do not need unanimity to do this,” he added, saying a Franco-British delegation would head to Ukraine in the coming days for talks.

‘Many questions’

Mr Macron emphasised that members of such a force would not be peacekeepers, deployed on the front line or any kind of substitute for the Ukrainian army.

Also, he said, not all of Ukraine’s European allies would be represented in the force, with some states not “having the capacity” and some reluctant due to the “political context”.

Volodymyr Zelensky meeting soldiers in the Donetsk region. Picture: Ukranian Presidential Press Service/AFP

The Franco-British delegation would begin talks over where such a force could be deployed.

It would have the “character of deterrence against any potential Russian aggression”, he said.

Mr Macron added that the summit agreed that he and Starmer would together “co-pilot” Europe’s ‘coalition of action’ for stable and durable peace”.

But Mr Zelensky struck a more downbeat note, warning that “there are many questions” but “so far, there are few answers” about the force, who would lead it and what it can do.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has long made clear her reserves over the troop deployment plan, said she hoped the US will be involved in the next European meeting on Ukraine and repeated Rome’s refusal to send troops to defend any peace deal.

But Mr Starmer, hailing the summit, said: “This is Europe mobilising together behind the peace process on a scale that we haven’t seen for decades, backed by partners from around the world.”

Thursday’s meeting comes after the White House said Russia and Ukraine had agreed on the contours of a possible ceasefire in the Black Sea, during parallel talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia.

– with AFP.