Australia demands answers from Russian ambassador over Australian prisoner of war

London: A Melbourne man fighting as part of Ukraine’s foreign legion has become the first known Australian soldier captured by Russian forces in the Donbas region and paraded on social media as a Western mercenary.

The Russian ambassador to Australia, Alexey Pavlovsky, was called into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Monday afternoon after footage of 32-year-old Oscar Jenkins, with his hands tied and being slapped across the face by a man speaking Russian, was widely circulated on social media platform Telegram on Sunday.

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

Acting Foreign Affairs Minister Mark Dreyfus said Australia was seeking urgent updates on Jenkins’ whereabouts and wellbeing.

“The Australian government is making representations to the Russian government. We urge the Russian government to fully adhere to its obligations under international humanitarian law, including with respect to prisoners of war,” he said in a statement.

“Our immediate priority is understanding where Mr Jenkins is and confirming his wellbeing. We are providing consular support to Mr Jenkins’ family. I reiterate the government’s clear advice to all Australians – do not travel to Ukraine.”

The footage of Oscar Jenkins, with his wrists bound, was shared widely by pro-Russian social media accounts.Credit: Telegram

Army veteran Glenn Kolomeitz, who has advised Ukraine’s foreign forces, said several Australians had been killed while fighting with the international legion against Russia’s invasion.

“This is the first Australian to be captured,” he said.

“Russia is clearly exploiting that fact through its information operations, its propaganda machine. They’ll continue to do that, and use this as some kind of leverage with the Australian government because they know Australia has been a big supporter of Ukraine since day one.”

This masthead has independently confirmed Jenkins’ identity as 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.

In video footage shared widely by pro-Putin accounts, 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 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?” his captor asked 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 interrogation footage was first shared by Alexander Sladkov, a Russian propagandist and military correspondent for Russia 1 and Russia 24 TV channels.

Sladkov said the Australian would now face trial and prison, while adding that 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.

Pro-Putin propagandist Simeon Boikov, who has been staying in the Russian consulate in Sydney and is known by his online alias “Aussie Cossack”, on Monday volunteered to be exchanged with Jenkins in a prisoner swap. However, government sources said their immediate priority was Jenkins’ welfare.

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.

Russia has been classifying foreign fighters as mercenaries – people primarily motivated by private gain and not officially affiliated to the state’s armed forces – which denies them protections afforded to combatants and prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.

However, Donald Rothwell, an international law expert at the Australian National University, said Jenkins was a combatant and not a mercenary, based on known facts.

“Russia is entitled to treat the Australian as a prisoner of war, and they can be detained as such in the short to medium term. [But] Russia has obligations under the Geneva Conventions not to mistreat a prisoner of war and not to publicly humiliate them, such as by posting images on social media,” he said.

“Prisoners of war cannot be charged with crimes, and any attempt by Russia to prosecute this individual on the basis they were a mercenary would be challenged. Once Australia verifies the facts, Australia would be able to make representations on behalf of the citizen to ensure they are being treated consistently with their Geneva Convention rights.”

Earlier on Monday, 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 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.”

An Instagram post of Oscar Jenkins from June 12, 2017: A school friend described him as a “great sportsman” who represented the first XI cricket and first XVIII football teams.Credit: Instagram

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 about $US600 ($960) a month for rear-line troops to $US3300 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.

It is unclear when Jenkins 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.

Jenkins’ school friend said he had become “sort of withdrawn” since moving to China and had recently deleted much of his social media.

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.