Aussie tradie Caleb List who went missing in Ukraine is sentenced by Russian court
Caleb List signed up with the Ukrainian army following the Russian invasion in 2022, after having been rejected from joining the Australian Defence Force.
The 25-year-old from Gladstone is believed to have died last month after being hit by artillery fire in a contested territory near the city of Izyum, in the Kharkiv region, though his body has not been found.
On Friday, the self-declared Supreme Court of the Donetsk People's Republic - a far eastern Ukrainian region that is temporarily under Russian occupation - sentenced Mr List to 14 years in prison as a mercenary, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.
The court has previously sentenced other foreign volunteers who joined Ukrainian military to death.
According to the Kyiv Post, international legal experts said that the findings of court were 'meaningless'.
'One international lawyer who has worked extensively in Ukraine and Russia said ''If there is no country – there is no court,'' and any international court that would review the case would immediately throw out the rulings,' the paper said.
Since enlisting, Mr List had sent encrypted messages from Ukraine's trenches to Daily Mail Australia journalist Jonica Bray, sharing exclusive updates on his time in the war-ravaged country.
Thousands of foreign fighters like Mr List had signed up to help defend Ukraine, despite warnings from their governments, including Australia, not to travel there.
'It's not as crazy as most people think,' he said about what day-to-day was like in a warzone that's seen almost one million people killed or wounded,' Caleb said.
'There are scary moments and bad thing happen around Ukraine every day, but it's a normal country and it still has to operate like one.
'The only thing is there's a giant war in the background.'
The Aussie tradie spent anywhere from days to weeks in the trenches alongside both local soldiers and other foreign legion members of the army.
'It could be quiet. We could get bombed or the trench could get assaulted,' he said.
'Then I come home to the back lines, I do some training, eat some food, work on hobbies, call and message family, friends and other loved ones.
'Kind of like what normal people do on their weekends. Then, the cycle repeats itself.'
Mr List said he decided to head to Europe in 2022 to fulfill his lifelong dream of one day becoming a soldier and participating in military action.
His initial plan was to join the French Foreign Legion, but while on his way to France to sign up, Russia invaded Ukraine, and his whole life changed.
While on a drunken night out in Poland, Mr List crossed the border and headed to a tent with the sign 'Legionnaire.'
After about a month of basic training, he was transferred to the frontline, but kept the news from his family.
Mr List said he used various encrypted apps to communicate because he believed that as an Australian, he had a bounty on his head.
'It puts my life in danger if they know where I am,' he said. 'I just become a target on pro-Russian Telegram [messaging apps] groups.'
This week, Russia's defense ministry said its forces were advancing at key points along the front, and pro-Russian war bloggers said Russia had pierced Ukrainian lines between Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address, the heaviest frontline battles were around Pokrovsk and made no reference to any Russian advances.
As Russia, Ukraine, the United States and European powers consider the sequencing of a possible end to the more than three-year conflict in Ukraine, the drone war continues and fighting is intensifying in some key areas of the front.
Russia's defense ministry said 105 drones had been shot down over Russian regions between midnight and the early morning of Thursday, including 35 over the Moscow region.
The previous day, Russia said it shot down well over 300 Ukrainian drones.
Sergei Sobyanin, Moscow's mayor, said multiple drones had been shot down heading towards the capital, which along with the surrounding region has a population of 21 million people.
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