Russia jails Australian man for 13 years for fighting on Ukraine's side
The court had ruled that he had taken part in combat operations against Russian troops MOSCOW: Russia has sentenced an Australian citizen to 13 years in a maximum security prison for fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, state prosecutors in a part of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia said on Friday.Oscar Jenkins, 33, was found guilty by a court of participating in an armed conflict as a mercenary, a statement from the prosecutors said.The court had ruled that he had taken part in combat operations against Russian troops between March and December 2024.Australian media reported last year that Jenkins, a teacher from Melbourne, was serving alongside Ukraine's military when he was captured by Russian forces.In January, Australia summoned the Russian ambassador over what turned out to be false reports that Jenkins had been killed after being captured by Russia.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
2 hours ago
- Arab News
Three Serbs charged over paint attack on France Jewish sites
PARIS: A French judge has charged three Serbs with vandalizing Jewish sites with paint at the weekend 'to serve the interests of a foreign power,' a judicial source said Friday. A source close to the case said investigators suspect Russia is behind the attacks for which the men were charged on Thursday evening. They had exchanged messages on Telegram with other individuals not yet apprehended, it added. France's Holocaust memorial, three Paris synagogues and a restaurant were vandalized with paint in the night of Friday to Saturday, in what the Israeli embassy denounced as a 'coordinated anti-Semitic attack.' The source following the case described the three suspects, two born in 1995 and one born in 2003, as having completed a task motivated by financial compensation, but without being aware of any geopolitical implications. They were two brothers and a third person who had lived in France for several years, the source said. They were arrested on Monday in southeast France as they tried to leave the country. French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said he was 'deeply disgusted by these heinous acts targeting the Jewish community.' Israeli's President Isaac Herzog said Saturday he was 'dismayed' by the Paris vandalism, noting that his great-grandfather had been a rabbi at one of the synagogues. In the run-up to the Summer Olympics in Paris last year, several high-profile stunts intended to influence French public opinion led French officials to point the finger at Moscow. They included red hands tagged on Paris's main Holocaust memorial in May 2024. In October 2023, soon after the Palestinian militant attack on Israel that sparked the latest Gaza war, stars of David were tagged on buildings in the Paris region, with two Moldovans suspected of working for the Russian FSB security service later arrested. Russia has previously denied any involvement in any of the plots attributed to it by French officials.
Al Arabiya
3 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Russia sees little chance of saving nuclear arms pact given ‘ruined' ties with US
Russia sees little chance of saving its last nuclear accord with the United States, due to expire in eight months, given the 'ruined' state of relations with Washington, its top arms control official said in an interview published on Friday. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also told TASS news agency that President Donald Trump's proposed Golden Dome missile defense project was a 'deeply destabilizing' factor creating formidable new obstacles to arms control. His comments were among Moscow's bleakest yet about the prospects for the New START agreement, the last remaining nuclear arms treaty between the two countries, which caps the number of strategic warheads that each side can deploy. President Vladimir Putin in 2023 suspended Russian participation in New START, blaming US support for Ukraine, although he said that Russia would remain within the treaty's limits on warheads, missiles and heavy bomber planes. But if the treaty is not extended or replaced after it expires on February 5 next year, security experts fear it could fuel a new arms race at a time of acute international tension over the conflict in Ukraine, which both Putin and Trump have said could lead to World War Three. The Federation of American Scientists, an authoritative source on arms control, says that if Russia decided to abandon the treaty limits, it could theoretically increase its deployed nuclear arsenal by up to 60 percent by uploading hundreds of additional warheads. Ryabkov described Russia-US ties as 'simply in ruins.' 'There are no grounds for a full-scale resumption of New START in the current circumstances. And given that the treaty ends its life cycle in about eight months, talking about the realism of such a scenario is increasingly losing its meaning,' Ryabkov told TASS. 'Of course, deeply destabilizing programs like the Golden Dome - and the US is implementing a number of them - create additional, hard-to-overcome obstacles to the constructive consideration of any potential initiatives in the field of nuclear missile arms control, when and if it comes to that.' Trump said last month he had selected a design for the $175-billion Golden Dome project, which aims to block threats from China and Russia by creating a network of satellites, perhaps numbering in the hundreds, to detect, track and potentially intercept incoming missiles. Analysts say the initiative could sharply escalate the militarisation of space, prompting other countries to place similar systems there or to develop more advanced weapons to evade the missile shield. Ryabkov's comments came in the same week that Ukraine stunned Moscow by launching drone strikes on air bases deep inside Russia that house the heavy bomber planes that form part of its nuclear deterrent. Russia has said it will retaliate as and when its military sees fit.
Arab News
4 hours ago
- Arab News
Russia sees bleak prospects for expiring nuclear arms pact given ‘ruined' ties with US
Russia sees little chance of saving its last nuclear accord with the United States, due to expire in eight months, given the 'ruined' state of relations with Washington, its top arms control official said in an interview published on Friday. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also told TASS news agency that President Donald Trump's proposed Golden Dome missile defense project was a 'deeply destabilizing' factor creating formidable new obstacles to arms control. His comments were among Moscow's bleakest yet about the prospects for the New START agreement, the last remaining nuclear arms treaty between the two countries, which caps the number of strategic warheads that each side can deploy. President Vladimir Putin in 2023 suspended Russian participation in New START, blaming US support for Ukraine, although he said that Russia would remain within the treaty's limits on warheads, missiles and heavy bomber planes. But if the treaty is not extended or replaced after it expires on February 5 next year, security experts fear it could fuel a new arms race at a time of acute international tension over the conflict in Ukraine, which both Putin and Trump have said could lead to World War Three. The Federation of American Scientists, an authoritative source on arms control, says that if Russia decided to abandon the treaty limits, it could theoretically increase its deployed nuclear arsenal by up to 60 percent by uploading hundreds of additional warheads. Ryabkov described Russia-US ties as 'simply in ruins.' 'There are no grounds for a full-scale resumption of New START in the current circumstances. And given that the treaty ends its life cycle in about eight months, talking about the realism of such a scenario is increasingly losing its meaning,' Ryabkov told TASS. 'Of course, deeply destabilizing programs like the Golden Dome – and the US is implementing a number of them – create additional, hard-to-overcome obstacles to the constructive consideration of any potential initiatives in the field of nuclear missile arms control, when and if it comes to that.' Trump said last month he had selected a design for the $175-billion Golden Dome project, which aims to block threats from China and Russia by creating a network of satellites, perhaps numbering in the hundreds, to detect, track and potentially intercept incoming missiles. Analysts say the initiative could sharply escalate the militarization of space , prompting other countries to place similar systems there or to develop more advanced weapons to evade the missile shield. Ryabkov's comments came in the same week that Ukraine stunned Moscow by launching drone strikes on air bases deep inside Russia that house the heavy bomber planes that form part of its nuclear deterrent. Russia has said it will retaliate as and when its military sees fit.
