PM to meet Volodomyr Zelensky after Australian fighter Oscar Jenkins’ ‘sham trial’ in Russia

Anthony Albanese is tipped to meet Ukraine’s president in Rome after Russian occupiers put an Australian fighter though a ‘sham trial’.

Anthony Albanese will talk about efforts to free Australian fighter Oscar Jenkins when he meets Ukraine’s president in Rome on Sunday, a senior minister says.

The Prime Minister and Volodymyr Zelensky are among numerous world leaders in the Italian capital for Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration – a rare opportunity for the two men to meet face-to-face.

The meeting comes after Russian authorities in Ukraine’s occupied Luhansk region earlier this week sentenced Mr Jenkins to 13 years in a penal colony for allegedly fighting as a mercenary, complicating any prisoner swap talks.

Ahead of the talks, cabinet minister Murray Watt slammed the trial as “an appalling decision from Russia and another outrage in a long line of outrages”.

Captured Australian fighter Oscar Jenkins has been sentenced to 13 years in a Russian penal colony. Picture: Supplied

“We consider this to be a sham trial and we don’t accept that Mr Jenkins should be treated this way,” Senator Watt told Sky News, echoing Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

“In our view, he should be treated as a prisoner of war. He was a member of Ukraine Defense Forces and prisoners of war are entitled to humane treatment under international humanitarian law.

“We’ll continue advocating for his release and for his welfare and I’m sure Prime Minister Albanese will be taking that up with the Ukrainian President today.”

Mr Jenkins was fighting with Ukraine’s International Legion — a formal part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine — when he was captured late last year near Makiivka, a tiny village on the Zherebets River in Luhansk.

Australian authorities confirmed the Melbourne man was alive just over a month later amid reports he had been killed — reports that several Ukrainian security and government sources told NewsWire at the time were unfounded.

Russian authorities have sought to portray Mr Jenkins as a mercenary. Picture: NewsWire Handout

More than 20,000 people from all over the world have joined up with the Legion, which Russia has long sought to delegitimise by branding its members mercenaries.

The same pro-Kremlin social media accounts that first started spreading Mr Jenkins’ infamous interrogation video days after began sharing another clip showing dead soldiers stacked in the back of a truck.

A voiceover says in Russian: “That’s what’s going to happen to you. F***ing mercenaries. Australian f***ing mercenaries. We’ll f***ing kill you all. You’re all f***ing lying here. F***ing legion. You f***ing mercenaries. You’re all going to f***ing die here.”

Using reverse image search, NewsWire confirmed at the time the video was actually four years old and shows soldiers killed in the 2021 flare up between Armenia and Azerbaijan in disputed Nagorno-Karabakh.

But the voiceover was new and notably aligned with Kremlin rhetoric that members of Ukraine’s International Legion were mercenaries and therefore not protected by conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war.

Mr Albanese has accused the Russian government of ‘abrogating their international responsibilities’. Picture: Sophie Elsworth

Speaking in Rome on Saturday, Mr Albanese accused Moscow of trying to evade its responsibilities under international law.

“We will continue to make representations and continue to advocate on behalf of Mr Jenkins,” he told reporters.

“Let’s be very clear, this sentence by Russia is an outrage, it is a continuation of the way that they have behaved, abrogating their international responsibilities.

“This conflict began with them choosing to invade a sovereign nation and to abrogate their responsibility to uphold international law.

“And so we’ll continue to advocate very strongly on behalf of Mr Jenkins and we don’t believe that this is a legitimate decision by a legal process in Russia that is very politicised as we know.”

Originally published as PM to meet Volodomyr Zelensky after Australian fighter Oscar Jenkins’ ‘sham trial’ in Russia