A former Melbourne schoolteacher who was caught fighting as part of Ukraine’s Foreign Legion has been paraded for cameras by Russian soldiers.
Biology teacher Oscar Jenkins, 32, is a former Melbourne grammar student who traveled to Ukraine to join the war effort.
In a disturbing video uploaded to the social media platform Telegram, his captors saw Jenkins tied up and forced to his knees.
Speaking in a mix of broken English and Ukrainian, his captor slapped him while demanding he answer questions in Russian.
‘Where are you from?’ the soldier asked him.
Unable to understand, Mr Jenkins looked confused before his captor slapped him.
“Fuck the fastest speaker,” the Russian said.
When asked his nationality, Mr Jenkins replied: “I’m Australian.”
Prisoner of war: Australian professor Oscar Jenkins fell into the hands of Russian soldiers
Dressed in military gear and with dirt smeared on his face, Jenkins was repeatedly asked why he was in Kramatorsk, nearly 700 kilometers east of kyiv.
The Russian soldier demanded to know if Ukraine was paying Mr Jenkins to wage war on their behalf.
According to the Russian penal code, “mercenarism” can lead to up to 15 years in prison.
The Kremlin is reportedly handling nearly 600 criminal cases against foreign fighters, mostly 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.
‘My name is Oscar Jenkins… 32 years old. Living in Australia and Ukraine,” Jenkins said.
It is understood that Mr Jenkins was telling the truth to his captors, with The age confirming that it was Alumnus of 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, he reported.
Oscar Jenkins is interrogated by a Russian soldier
He admitted to having worked with Ukraine.
Since 2017 he has worked as a professor at Tianjin University.
It is unclear when he left China or how long he has been fighting with Ukrainian forces on the front lines.
A school friend told the publication that Mr Jenkins was a good person, an intelligent and well-liked classmate and a “great sportsman” who represented the first XI cricket team and the first XVII football team.
Mr Jenkins’ LinkedIn profile lists him as a former member of the Toorak-Prahran Cricket Club.
His partner claimed that Jenkins had become “a little withdrawn” since moving to China and had recently deleted much of his social media.
A passionate vegan, he uploaded a single video to his YouTube channel last year titled: “I will force Chinese to be vegan.”
“The only people who are my friends are vegans anyway,” Jenkins said in the video.
‘If you’re not vegan and you’re my friend, then you’re going to be vegan soon or we’re going to fight… and my mom, I’m still talking to my mom. Otherwise it’s pretty limited. “There is some help from outside, from the family that wants to do things.”
Footage of the interrogation was first shared by Alexander Sladkov, a Russian propagandist and military correspondent for the Russia 1 and Russia 24 television channels.
He said the Australian would now face trial and prison, while adding that the Russians were actively seeking foreign fighters, potentially to secure prisoner swaps.
He said Ukrainian units were listed as targets if a foreign language was heard in the radio intercept.
When his interrogator asked him how he was paid, Jenkins said he was paid Ukrainian hryvnia into an account at PrivatBank, the country’s largest bank.
According to the International Legion recruiting website, monthly salaries correspond to the salaries of enlisted soldiers in regular Ukrainian units, ranging from approximately $600 per month for rear troops to $3,300 per month while on deployment. fighting.
At least eight Australians have died since Vladimir Putin’s troops launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, including Victorian Joel Benjamin Stremski and Queenslanders Brock Greenwood and Matthew Jepson, who died while holding off troops. Russians in the east of the country in October.
However, Jenkins is the first Australian known to have been captured by Russian or Russian-aligned forces.