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Sydney Morning Herald
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘It's just cold. I don't like the cold': The haunting plight of Oscar Jenkins
Then comes a moment of unexpected clarity: 'I don't want a world where people kill each other. I would rather have a world where there's all peace, security, freedom. The best, the best world.' Captured in the eastern town of Makiivka in December, Jenkins was at first paraded on social media and then, just as quickly, disappeared. False rumours of his death circulated until, in February, he again appeared on pro-Russian Telegram accounts with a broken arm in a proof-of-life video. He was formally charged with fighting as a mercenary in April and put on trial by a Russian-backed court in the occupied Luhansk region. On Friday, he was sentenced to 13 years in a maximum-security penal colony. During the hearing, he stood behind glass in jeans and a striped jumper, his voice flat and apologetic. 'I feel sorry that I participated in a potentially violent way,' he said, his comments sounding rehearsed. 'I am not a Ukrainian nationalist, my ideas are more global. I hope everyone in the world can have peace without war.' British fighter Shaun Pinner, who spent months in Russian captivity, warned that such performances were choreographed. 'They break you first,' he told this masthead last month. 'And then they parade you.' Pinner, who fought with Ukraine's marines and, in 2022, was sentenced to death by a separatist court in Donetsk before being returned to the United Kingdom in a prisoner swap, has since spoken publicly about the conditions inside Russian captivity – physical abuse, mock executions, starvation. His testimony casts a long shadow over Jenkins' case, fuelling concerns that the Australian could face a similar fate, or worse. In Canberra, Foreign Minister Penny Wong called Jenkins' trial 'a sham' and said the Australian, having served in Ukraine's regular armed forces, must be afforded prisoner-of-war protections under the Geneva Conventions. 'Russia is obligated to treat him in accordance with international humanitarian law, including humane treatment,' she said. Loading Prime Minister Anthony Albanese echoed those concerns, calling the sentence 'an outrage' and 'a continuation of the way they have behaved, abrogating their responsibilities'. But Russia does not recognise foreign fighters in Ukraine as lawful combatants. Instead, it categorises them as criminals or paid mercenaries – a stance that strips them of POW protections and makes them pawns in a wider geopolitical game. Moscow claimed Jenkins was paid up to 800,000 roubles ($15,000) a month and arrived via a recruiting centre in Ternopil, in western Ukraine. From there, he was sent east, where he served with the 66th Separate Mechanised Brigade in the Donbas. Jenkins' account offers a bleaker, less heroic picture of service in the name of justice. 'Most of my work has been digging defensive position [sic]. Digging position,' he says in the video. 'If the Russians come, you push back, you shoot for the drones. But I haven't really done much of that.' He recounts firing a machine gun once into a Russian position, but it's unclear if he ever saw combat. 'I don't know what a win is. Is it to freeze the line and then let Donetsk, Luhansk, Crimea choose again?' He describes a battlefield stripped of meaning – bleak, grim, senseless. 'I saw lots of bodies, dead bodies. Infrastructure had been destroyed, the environment, ecology had been destroyed. Mud, just a lot of mud. Not many trees. It's not beautiful, it's not nice.' Jenkins also gives a candid account of dysfunction among the volunteer ranks. 'There were other drugs with some of the foreigners. I tried in Ternopil, I tried marijuana, I had a puff,' he says. 'But on the base near Slovyansk, there were people who were smoking marijuana, cannabis and drinking on base, and it was causing issues.' What began as a personal mission – perhaps for justice, perhaps for meaning – seems to have curdled into a slow descent into disillusionment. Jenkins, a talented cricketer and footballer, was known for his skills and dedication. After graduating in 2010 and studying biomedical sciences at Monash University, he moved to China in 2015, where he worked as a lecturer at Tianjin Modern Vocational Technology College from 2017. Jenkins was a passionate vegan and runner, often sharing his beliefs through social media, including a rather odd video stating he would 'force Chinese people to be vegan'. A schoolfriend recently described Jenkins as 'quirky, but a really great guy'. But after school, he said, he'd lost contact with many of his friends. As a cricket teammate, he was 'a bit smarter than average, more deep-thinking'. But here Jenkins doesn't speak in absolutes. He second-guesses himself constantly. What is clear, though, even in his hesitant answers, is that by the time he was captured, he wanted out. Russia's refusal to grant him POW status severely limits the options available to the Australian government. Quiet diplomatic overtures are being made, mainly through the International Committee of the Red Cross, and officials are believed to be exploring the possibility of a prisoner exchange. Loading Russian human rights groups have speculated that Jenkins may be part of a future swap involving Kira and Igor Korolev – Russian nationals arrested in Brisbane last year and charged with preparing to carry out an act of espionage. For now, Jenkins remains a prisoner – not just of the Kremlin, but of the uncertainty that has defined his story from the beginning. Don Rothwell, a professor of international law at the Australian National University, points out that, unlike other high-profile Australian detainees in recent years – Kylie Moore-Gilbert in Iran, Cheng Lei in China, Sean Turnell in Myanmar – Jenkins is no academic, no journalist, no dissident. He is a man who inserted himself into a war, and because of Russia's stance, may have forfeited the usual lines of diplomatic protection. That doesn't mean his life is worthless to the Kremlin. But it does mean that the path to bringing him home is narrower, more fraught, and more susceptible to politics. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has – as is its longstanding habit – urged his family to stay silent, wary of jeopardising sensitive talks. In public, Jenkins is now reduced to a series of clips: a courtroom video, a coerced confession, a shaky YouTube monologue. But it's in those moments – especially the unguarded ones – that his story comes through. Not as a symbol. Not as a hero. Just a man who went looking for something, and found something else entirely.
The Age
18-05-2025
- Politics
- The Age
‘It's just cold. I don't like the cold': The haunting plight of Oscar Jenkins
Then comes a moment of unexpected clarity: 'I don't want a world where people kill each other. I would rather have a world where there's all peace, security, freedom. The best, the best world.' Captured in the eastern town of Makiivka in December, Jenkins was at first paraded on social media and then, just as quickly, disappeared. False rumours of his death circulated until, in February, he again appeared on pro-Russian Telegram accounts with a broken arm in a proof-of-life video. He was formally charged with fighting as a mercenary in April and put on trial by a Russian-backed court in the occupied Luhansk region. On Friday, he was sentenced to 13 years in a maximum-security penal colony. During the hearing, he stood behind glass in jeans and a striped jumper, his voice flat and apologetic. 'I feel sorry that I participated in a potentially violent way,' he said, his comments sounding rehearsed. 'I am not a Ukrainian nationalist, my ideas are more global. I hope everyone in the world can have peace without war.' British fighter Shaun Pinner, who spent months in Russian captivity, warned that such performances were choreographed. 'They break you first,' he told this masthead last month. 'And then they parade you.' Pinner, who fought with Ukraine's marines and, in 2022, was sentenced to death by a separatist court in Donetsk before being returned to the United Kingdom in a prisoner swap, has since spoken publicly about the conditions inside Russian captivity – physical abuse, mock executions, starvation. His testimony casts a long shadow over Jenkins' case, fuelling concerns that the Australian could face a similar fate, or worse. In Canberra, Foreign Minister Penny Wong called Jenkins' trial 'a sham' and said the Australian, having served in Ukraine's regular armed forces, must be afforded prisoner-of-war protections under the Geneva Conventions. 'Russia is obligated to treat him in accordance with international humanitarian law, including humane treatment,' she said. Loading Prime Minister Anthony Albanese echoed those concerns, calling the sentence 'an outrage' and 'a continuation of the way they have behaved, abrogating their responsibilities'. But Russia does not recognise foreign fighters in Ukraine as lawful combatants. Instead, it categorises them as criminals or paid mercenaries – a stance that strips them of POW protections and makes them pawns in a wider geopolitical game. Moscow claimed Jenkins was paid up to 800,000 roubles ($15,000) a month and arrived via a recruiting centre in Ternopil, in western Ukraine. From there, he was sent east, where he served with the 66th Separate Mechanised Brigade in the Donbas. Jenkins' account offers a bleaker, less heroic picture of service in the name of justice. 'Most of my work has been digging defensive position [sic]. Digging position,' he says in the video. 'If the Russians come, you push back, you shoot for the drones. But I haven't really done much of that.' He recounts firing a machine gun once into a Russian position, but it's unclear if he ever saw combat. 'I don't know what a win is. Is it to freeze the line and then let Donetsk, Luhansk, Crimea choose again?' He describes a battlefield stripped of meaning – bleak, grim, senseless. 'I saw lots of bodies, dead bodies. Infrastructure had been destroyed, the environment, ecology had been destroyed. Mud, just a lot of mud. Not many trees. It's not beautiful, it's not nice.' Jenkins also gives a candid account of dysfunction among the volunteer ranks. 'There were other drugs with some of the foreigners. I tried in Ternopil, I tried marijuana, I had a puff,' he says. 'But on the base near Slovyansk, there were people who were smoking marijuana, cannabis and drinking on base, and it was causing issues.' What began as a personal mission – perhaps for justice, perhaps for meaning – seems to have curdled into a slow descent into disillusionment. Jenkins, a talented cricketer and footballer, was known for his skills and dedication. After graduating in 2010 and studying biomedical sciences at Monash University, he moved to China in 2015, where he worked as a lecturer at Tianjin Modern Vocational Technology College from 2017. Jenkins was a passionate vegan and runner, often sharing his beliefs through social media, including a rather odd video stating he would 'force Chinese people to be vegan'. A schoolfriend recently described Jenkins as 'quirky, but a really great guy'. But after school, he said, he'd lost contact with many of his friends. As a cricket teammate, he was 'a bit smarter than average, more deep-thinking'. But here Jenkins doesn't speak in absolutes. He second-guesses himself constantly. What is clear, though, even in his hesitant answers, is that by the time he was captured, he wanted out. Russia's refusal to grant him POW status severely limits the options available to the Australian government. Quiet diplomatic overtures are being made, mainly through the International Committee of the Red Cross, and officials are believed to be exploring the possibility of a prisoner exchange. Loading Russian human rights groups have speculated that Jenkins may be part of a future swap involving Kira and Igor Korolev – Russian nationals arrested in Brisbane last year and charged with preparing to carry out an act of espionage. For now, Jenkins remains a prisoner – not just of the Kremlin, but of the uncertainty that has defined his story from the beginning. Don Rothwell, a professor of international law at the Australian National University, points out that, unlike other high-profile Australian detainees in recent years – Kylie Moore-Gilbert in Iran, Cheng Lei in China, Sean Turnell in Myanmar – Jenkins is no academic, no journalist, no dissident. He is a man who inserted himself into a war, and because of Russia's stance, may have forfeited the usual lines of diplomatic protection. That doesn't mean his life is worthless to the Kremlin. But it does mean that the path to bringing him home is narrower, more fraught, and more susceptible to politics. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has – as is its longstanding habit – urged his family to stay silent, wary of jeopardising sensitive talks. In public, Jenkins is now reduced to a series of clips: a courtroom video, a coerced confession, a shaky YouTube monologue. But it's in those moments – especially the unguarded ones – that his story comes through. Not as a symbol. Not as a hero. Just a man who went looking for something, and found something else entirely.
7NEWS
17-05-2025
- Politics
- 7NEWS
Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong slam Russia over 13-year sentence for captured fighter
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has slammed the 13-year prison sentence handed to Australian citizen Oscar Jenkins by a Russian-controlled court, calling the proceedings a 'sham trial' and demanding he be treated as a prisoner of war. Jenkins, 33, from Melbourne, was convicted of fighting as a mercenary alongside Ukrainian forces and sentenced to a maximum-security penal colony in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine. The former biology teacher, who was captured by Russian troops in December 2023, was accused of receiving up to 800,000 rubles (around A$15,000) per month to engage in military operations against Russian forces. State-run media claimed Jenkins had 'fully admitted his guilt,' though serious concerns have been raised about the fairness of the trial and the conditions of his detention. 'The Australian government is appalled at the sham trial and 13-year sentence given to Australian man Oscar Jenkins,' Wong said in a statement posted to social media. 'As a full-serving member of the regular armed forces of Ukraine, Mr Jenkins is a prisoner of war. Russia is obligated under international humanitarian law to provide him with humane treatment and full POW protections.' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese echoed the condemnation, calling the sentence 'an outrage' during a press conference in Rome. 'Let's be very clear. This sentence by Russia is an outrage – it is a continuation of the way they have behaved, abrogating their responsibilities,' the Prime Minister said. 'This conflict began with them choosing to invade a sovereign nation, and their decision to abrogate their responsibility to uphold international law.' Jenkins was formally charged with mercenary activity in April and appeared in court on Friday in a glass cage, reportedly looking frail and despondent. Russian prosecutors argued he had signed a contract with the Ukrainian Defence Ministry and fought in the Donbas region with Ukraine's 66th Separate Mechanised Brigade. Footage of Jenkins in Russian custody circulated online after his capture, showing him bound, slapped, and aggressively interrogated. The video sparked global outrage and led to fears that he had been killed, prompting the Australian government to summon the Russian ambassador in January. New footage later surfaced in February showing Jenkins alive but visibly unwell, with possible injuries including a broken arm — heightening concerns over his treatment. Russian state media claimed reports of his death were 'fake news' orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence. Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson described the sentence as a 'sham' and a 'gross violation' of international law, saying Jenkins must be treated as a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions. Human rights groups have echoed calls for Jenkins' release, criticising the legality of the trial and raising the possibility that he may be included in a future swap. One such deal could involve Russian spies Kira and Igor Korolev, according to speculation from the Russian branch of the International Committee for the Protection of Human Rights. Jenkins' case follows the March conviction of British national James Scott Rhys Anderson, who received a 19-year sentence from a Russian military court — the first such case involving a British citizen since the war began. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been contacted for further comment.
The Age
28-04-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Surviving Russian captivity: Shaun Pinner's haunting warning for Australian Oscar Jenkins
London: As Australian Oscar Jenkins awaits trial in a Russian-controlled prison, accused of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine, former British soldier Shaun Pinner knows all too well the torment that may follow. Captured by Putin's forces in 2022 while defending Mariupol alongside Ukrainian troops, Pinner spent five months in captivity, enduring torture, starvation, and psychological torment – an ordeal that still haunts him. 'But you should never lose hope in a situation like that,' Pinner says. 'Because if you lose hope, you've lost everything.' Originally sentenced to death by a Donetsk court in a Kafkaesque trial, during which his own lawyer argued for his guilt, Pinner offers chilling insight into what Jenkins may soon face. Jenkins, 33, a former schoolteacher from Melbourne, was captured in December 2024 after joining Ukraine's 66th Separate Mechanised Brigade. He now faces trial in the Russian-backed Luhansk People's Republic, accused of being a 'mercenary in an armed conflict', a charge that could result in up to 15 years in prison. His case has drawn international concern, with the Australian government working through diplomatic channels to secure his release. 'Everything they do is about breaking you down,' says Pinner, speaking from his adopted home of Dnipro, in central Ukraine. 'The darkest moments were when I was left alone in my cell for 12 hours. I just broke down crying, thinking I'd never get home.' He warns that legal proceedings in Russian-occupied territories are largely performative. Still, Jenkins may avoid the lawlessness of a frontline POW camp by being held in a slightly more controlled facility. 'By the time my sham trial came around, I looked like I'd been in a death camp,' Pinner says. 'We hadn't seen daylight for 60 days. We were so malnourished, our skin went like crêpe paper and our fingernails became paper-thin.' Fed mostly on scraps of bread, Pinner lost 20 kilograms. 'My back went straight into my legs, my elbows protruded. I thought I was going to die of starvation before the trial.'
Sydney Morning Herald
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Surviving Russian captivity: Shaun Pinner's haunting warning for Australian Oscar Jenkins
London: As Australian Oscar Jenkins awaits trial in a Russian-controlled prison, accused of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine, former British soldier Shaun Pinner knows all too well the torment that may follow. Captured by Putin's forces in 2022 while defending Mariupol alongside Ukrainian troops, Pinner spent five months in captivity, enduring torture, starvation, and psychological torment – an ordeal that still haunts him. 'But you should never lose hope in a situation like that,' Pinner says. 'Because if you lose hope, you've lost everything.' Originally sentenced to death by a Donetsk court in a Kafkaesque trial, during which his own lawyer argued for his guilt, Pinner offers chilling insight into what Jenkins may soon face. Jenkins, 33, a former schoolteacher from Melbourne, was captured in December 2024 after joining Ukraine's 66th Separate Mechanised Brigade. He now faces trial in the Russian-backed Luhansk People's Republic, accused of being a 'mercenary in an armed conflict', a charge that could result in up to 15 years in prison. His case has drawn international concern, with the Australian government working through diplomatic channels to secure his release. 'Everything they do is about breaking you down,' says Pinner, speaking from his adopted home of Dnipro, in central Ukraine. 'The darkest moments were when I was left alone in my cell for 12 hours. I just broke down crying, thinking I'd never get home.' He warns that legal proceedings in Russian-occupied territories are largely performative. Still, Jenkins may avoid the lawlessness of a frontline POW camp by being held in a slightly more controlled facility. 'By the time my sham trial came around, I looked like I'd been in a death camp,' Pinner says. 'We hadn't seen daylight for 60 days. We were so malnourished, our skin went like crêpe paper and our fingernails became paper-thin.' Fed mostly on scraps of bread, Pinner lost 20 kilograms. 'My back went straight into my legs, my elbows protruded. I thought I was going to die of starvation before the trial.'
