A former Melbourne school teacher who was caught fighting as part of the Ukrainian Foreign Legion has been paraded on camera by Russian soldiers.
Biology teacher Oscar Jenkins, 32, is a former grammar student from Melbourne who traveled to Ukraine to join the war effort.
In a disturbing video uploaded to social media platform Telegram, Mr Jenkins was tied up and forced to his knees by his captors.
His captor spoke in a mix of English and broken Ukrainian and punched him in the face, demanding he answer questions sent to him in Russian.
‘Where do you come from?’ the soldier asked him.
Mr Jenkins couldn’t understand it and looked confused before he was punched by his captor.
“F*** speaker faster,” the Russian said.
When asked about his nationality, Mr Jenkins replied: ‘I’m Australian.’
A former Melbourne school teacher caught fighting as part of the Ukrainian Foreign Legion has been paraded on camera by Russian soldiers
Dressed in military fatigues with dirt on his face, Mr Jenkins was repeatedly asked why he was in Kramatorsk, almost 700 kilometers east of Kiev.
The Russian soldier demanded to know whether Mr. Jenkins was being paid by Ukraine to wage war on Ukraine’s behalf.
According to Russia’s criminal code, “mercenarism” can carry up to 15 years in prison.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the news of the arrest as ‘worrying’.
“So our embassy in Moscow is working. But in addition, Foreign Affairs and Trade also work here,” he said.
“We always look after Australians. That is the job of an Australian government: to stand up for Australian citizens.”
The Kremlin is reportedly handling nearly 600 criminal cases against foreign fighters – mainly citizens of the United States, Georgia, Britain, Canada, Lithuania and Latvia.
Dozens of Australians are believed to be fighting on the front lines of Ukraine’s war against Russia, but the federal government has been unable to provide figures.
Biology teacher Oscar Jenkins, 32, is a former grammar student from Melbourne who traveled to Ukraine to join the war effort
‘My name is Oscar Jenkins… 32 years old. Live in Australia and Ukraine,” Mr Jenkins claimed.
It is clear that Mr. Jenkins did indeed tell his captors the truth The era confirming that he was 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 worked as a teacher at Tianjin College.
It is unclear when he left China and how long he fought with Ukrainian troops on the front lines.
A school friend told the publication that Mr Jenkins was a good man, an intelligent, well-liked classmate and a ‘great sportsman’ who represented the First XI cricket and First XVII football teams.
Mr Jenkins is listed on his LinkedIn profile as a former member of Toorak-Prahran Cricket Club.
His partner claimed Mr Jenkins had become ‘a bit withdrawn’ since moving to China and had recently deleted much of his social media.
In a disturbing video uploaded to social media platform Telegram, Mr Jenkins was tied up and forced to his knees by his captors.
A passionate vegan, he uploaded a single video to his YouTube channel last year with the title: “I will force Chinese people to be vegan.”
“The only people who are friends with me anyway are vegans,” Jenkins said in the video.
“If you’re not vegan, and you’re my girlfriend, you’re going to be vegan soon, or we’re going to fight… and my mom, I still talk to my mom. Otherwise it’s quite limited. There is help from outside, from family who want to do things.’
The footage of the interrogation was first shared by Alexander Sladkov, a Russian propagandist and military correspondent for the TV channels Russia 1 and Russia 24.
He said the Australian will now stand trial and face jail time, adding that the Russians are actively hunting foreign fighters, possibly to secure a prisoner swap.
He said Ukrainian units were listed as targets if a foreign language was heard during the radio intercept.
Asked by his interrogator how he was paid, Mr Jenkins said the Ukrainian hryvnia was deposited into a PrivatBank account, the country’s largest bank.
According to the International Legion’s recruiting website, the monthly pay is equivalent to the pay of enlisted soldiers in regular Ukrainian units, ranging from about $600 per month for backline troops to $3,300 per month during a combat deployment.
At least eight Australians have been killed since Vladimir Putin’s forces launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, including Victorian man Joel Benjamin Stremski, and Queenslanders Brock Greenwood and Matthew Jepson, who died when they confronted Russian troops in the country’s east in October stopped.
However, Mr Jenkins is the first Australian known to have been captured by Russian or Russia-affiliated forces.