‘Prisoner swap or gulag’: Aussie Cossack Simeon Boikov asks to be exchange for captured mercenary Oscar Jenkins

Simeon Boikov, who is holed up in the Russian embassy in Sydney, tells The Australian he’s ready to be swapped for a Melbourne man captured by Vladimir Putin’s forces in Ukraine.

Simeon Boikov (L) has asked to be exchanged for captured Australian mercenary Oscar Jenkins.

Self-styled “Aussie Cossack” Simeon Boikov says he is ready to be swapped for a Melbourne man captured by Vladimir Putin’s forces in Ukraine, declaring a prisoner exchange will save Australian mercenary Oscar Jenkins from a Russian gulag.

Hours after Russian forces released video of Mr Jenkins being interrogated after his capture in Donbas, Australian-born Boikov, who has been holed up in Russia’s Sydney consulate for more than two years in defiance of two police warrants, said Mr Jenkins “doesn’t have many other choices”.

“It’s clear on the video that they’re interrogating him, and they’ve been beating him as they’re interrogating him, because the Russians don’t look kindly upon mercenaries,” he told The Australian.

“So the only way this Jenkins character is ever going to return back to Australia safely and quickly is if there’s a deal on the table. And I’m happy to be part of a deal.”

The Russian video, circulated on Telegram, shows Mr Jenkins being interrogated after his capture in Donbas and telling his captors he is 32 and lives in both Australia and Ukraine.

Dressed in camouflage and with dirt on his face, Mr Jenkins is hit on the side of the head twice in the footage, with his Russian military interrogator saying in Russian: “Don’t blame me for slapping you.”

Boikov said he had appealed to Russian officials: “Don’t beat him. Don’t kill him. Let’s exchange him.”

His comments came after Russian politician Viktor Petrovich Vodolatsky proposed a “prisoner swap” involving the “Aussie Cossack”, who was granted Russian citizenship last year in a special decree by President Putin.

Responding to Mr Vodolatsky, Boikov said: “The Russians are very clearly saying, yes, they’re keen on this. I thought this day might happen.”

He said Mr Jenkins faced an uncertain future in Russia in the absence of a prisoner swap.

“How is Oscar going to escape the gulag? He’s been caught, and he’s in trouble. Big trouble. He’s got no protections. I feel sorry for him.

“Let’s work together on this one. Let’s send the Aussie Cossack back to Russia and bring Oscar home.”

Boikov has engaged Sydney barrister Bruce Levet to represent his interests in the matter.

Mr Levet said he had written a letter to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade setting out Boikov’s proposal and seeking to establish the government’s position on the matter.

Mr Levet told The Australian that from a legal point of view, the proposed exchange was “certainly possible”.

“In terms of whether there’s a political appetite for it, I’m probably not the person to ask,” he said.

Boikov entered the Russian consulate in December 2022 after refusing to report to NSW police on two outstanding warrants. One involved an alleged assault on a 76-year-old pro-Ukraine protester.

In the second half of the two-minute reel, Mr Jenkins is shown with his hands tied in duct tape in front of his body. At one point he explains he is a student, “studying biology, physiology”.

Simeon Boikov, aka “the Aussie Cossack”, had asked Wagner Group to capture Australians fighting for Ukraine so he could be traded in a prisoner swap. Picture: TheAussieCossack/Rumble

Mr Vodolatskj, who is chairman of the Union of the Russian Foreign Cossack Forces, said: “Russia will make every effort to resolve this exchange issue and all Russian Cossacks will, of course, support us.

“The time has come when we can exchange the Russian patriot, Ataman Boikov, for this scum who was captured and came to our Orthodox Russian land to hunt civilians.”

Before speaking to The Australian, Mr Boikov said on his Telegram site: “Of course, it’s disgusting that he’s a mercenary, but we need him, we need him for an exchange.”

Boikov is a notoriously active supporter of Putin and is closely linked with far-right groups in Australia such as the Serbian Chetniks, Golden Dawn, and neo-Nazis.

Anthony Albanese on Monday said the Australian embassy in Moscow was trying to figure out the facts about Mr Jenkins’s wellbeing and whereabouts.

“This is concerning news and we’re working through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,” the Prime Minister said in Sydney.

“We know that the Russians often put out information that isn’t right.

“We always look after Australians … we will make those representations.”

Acting Foreign Minister Mark Dreyfus said the government was providing consular support to Mr Jenkins’ family.

“We urge the Russian government to fully adhere to its obligations under international humanitarian law, including with respect to prisoners of war,” Mr Dreyfus said in a statement.

“Our immediate priority is understanding where Mr Jenkins is and confirming his wellbeing.”

Mr Dreyfus again warned Australians not to travel to Ukraine.

The Telegram account of Dambiev, which has more than 100,000 subscribers, revealed on Monday that “Oscar, a biology teacher from Australia, was captured by our soldiers on one of the front lines”.

Other Russian Telegram channels say Jenkins was captured by the military commander Alexander Skadkov and his troops in Kursk.

In the interrogation, Jenkins tries to communicate in French and Ukrainian as well as English.

His interrogator says in Russian: “Where are you from?” Where are you from? Nationality? F**k, talk faster, f**k.”

Stills from the Telegram video of Oscar Jenkins reportedly captured by Russian forces in the Donbas region.

Mr Jenkins replies: “I am a student, I am …” to which the interrogator says “Well, then, f**k, who the f**k are you? Name?”

The Russian asks Mr Jenkins his rank, his base, who is his commander and where are the headquarters, but Mr Jenkins doesn’t appear to understand the questions.

Mr Jenkins then says his first name is Oscar and provides a few more details about himself, including that he was helping Ukraine and was being paid in Ukrainian money.

One of the Russians then says: “So you are here for the money, you moron.”

Sladkov, continuing to speak Russian, says that the prisoner would now face trial and prison, adding he didn’t understand mercenaries.

Mr Jenkins is a former Melbourne Grammar student and keen cricketer with Toorak-Prahran club who has been teaching in China for some years. He studied biomedical sciences at Monash University and then moved to China in 2015, teaching at Tianjin College. It is uncertain how long he has been fighting for the Ukrainians.

On social media there is an undated clip of him wearing a Ghostbusters t-shirt, where he talks about “all these little experiments”, his “passions” and says he has deleted all his previous posts. He says all his friends are vegans.

In the short clip he said: “I’m still talking to my mum, otherwise (communication with friends) is quite limited,’’ adding, “there is some help from family wanting to do stuff”.

Without context, he then adds: “It is driving me absolutely f**king insane. So I deleted all my old videos and we are going to start again from square one, I don’t give a shit, I am going to wear my shirt outside and think I am a freak more than I already am. No one will give me a wink and a nod, I will take the wink and a nod. There won’t be any tables set up with banners saying ‘talk to me I am a vegan’ but I can’t make any other promises.”

Without pausing, he then says: “Oh, someone wanted me to get reverse vasectomy, no, that’s something I would only consider if the person was very very special.”

In the Telegram chat some posters have inferred that Russians may have been specifically hunting for foreign fighters, having picked up foreign voices in radio interceptions.