A former Melbourne school teacher caught fighting as part of Ukraine’s foreign legion has become the butt of cruel jokes while languishing in a Russian jail.
Biology teacher Oscar Jenkins, 32, is a former vegan Melbourne Grammar student who travelled to Ukraine to join its war effort.
In disturbing video uploaded to the social media platform Telegram, Mr Jenkins was seen bound and forced to his knees by his captors.
Word of his plight spread across social media like wildfire, with many Russians mocking the Australian prisoner of war.
‘So, a teacher? He came to teach Russians a lesson, but apparently something went wrong,’ one person posted to Reddit.
‘I hate when I get lost and end up on the front lines in Ukraine dressed in soldier’s uniform and a gun in my hands. It’s so annoying, can’t avoid it!’ another stated.
Meanwhile, the Pro-Putin activist known as Aussie Cossack has thanked the Russian military for capturing Mr Jenkins, suggesting he can be used for collateral.
Simeon Boikov, who has taken refuge inside the Russian embassy in Sydney for the past two years, joyfully joined the Jenkins pile-on.
A former Melbourne school teacher caught fighting as part of Ukraine ‘s foreign legion has been paraded on camera by Russian soldiers
‘Now we have an Australian prisoner, finally,’ Boikov posted.
‘The only way Oscar Jenkins is going to avoid 35 years in a Gulag is if the Australian Government agrees to a prisoner exchange deal and guess what, I’m volunteering my candidacy,’ he said.
‘Literally it’s been two years and finally … I think, I hope, I’m going to make it to Russia. Let’s do a deal Albanese, let’s get your Oscar Jenkins back.’
Speaking in a mix of English and broken Ukrainian, Mr Jenkins was slapped by his captor in the face while being asked questions on camera.
‘Where are you from?’ the soldier asked him.
Unable to understand, Mr Jenkins looked confused before he was slapped by his captor.
‘F*** speaker faster,’ the Russian said.
When asked his nationality, Mr Jenkins replied: ‘I’m Australian.’
Oscar Jenkins finishes a run in China in 2017. The post is now littered with comments from trolls
Mr Jenkins is a passionate vegan. His LinkedIn profile picture asks people to ‘destroy evil’ and ‘be good’
Biology teacher Oscar Jenkins, 32, is a former Melbourne Grammar student who travelled to Ukraine to join its war effort
Dressed in military gear with dirt smeared on his face, Mr Jenkins was repeatedly asked about why he was in Kramatorsk, almost 700km east of Kyiv.
The Russian soldier demanded to know if Mr Jenkins was being paid by the Ukraine to wage war on its behalf.
Under Russia’s criminal code ‘mercenarism’ can attract up to 15 years in prison.
Boikov urged the Australian Government to bring Mr Jenkins home.
‘He went to Melbourne Grammar School, he went to Monash University, he’s from Melbourne, he’s from Victoria, we should bring him home,’ he said.
‘He shouldn’t have been in Ukraine, but he will not be killed, he will not be tortured, he will be put on to a list of prisoner exchange and Australia we can do this. Let’s do this.’
Boikov, who has had a warrant issued for his arrest over the assault of a 76-year-old man at a rally in support of Ukraine at Sydney’s Town Hall in 2022, said he had been in contact with his lawyer to attempt to make an arrangement with the federal government.
Boikov then raised his fist and said: ‘Glory to the Russian military, thank you very much for doing this and keeping him alive.
‘Keep him alive, don’t kill him, don’t torture him.’
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese labelled news of Mr Jenkins capture as ‘concerning’.
Mr Jenkins was a well liked cricket player
Mr Jenkins had been regarded as a talented athlete
In disturbing video uploaded to the social media platform Telegram, Mr Jenkins was seen bound and forced to his knees by his captors
‘So our embassy in Moscow is working. But in addition to that, Foreign Affairs and Trade are working here as well,’ he said.
‘We always look after Australians. That’s the job of an Australian government — to make representations for Australian citizens.’
The Kremlin is reportedly handling almost 600 criminal cases against foreign fighters – mostly citizens of the United States, Georgia, Great Britain, Canada, Lithuania and Latvia.
Dozens of Australians are believed to be fighting on the front lines in Ukraine’s war against Russia, but the federal government has not been able to provide figures.
‘My name is Oscar Jenkins … 32 years old. Live in Australia and Ukraine,’ Mr Jenkins claimed.
Mr Jenkins was later confirmed to be 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, it reported.
Since 2017, he has been working as a lecturer at Tianjin College.
It is unclear when he left China and how long he has been fighting with Ukrainian forces on the frontline.
A YouTube video featuring Mr Jenkins rant about being a vegan has been overrun with comments from trolls.
A passionate vegan, he uploaded a single video to his YouTube channel last year titled: ‘I will force Chinese people to be vegan.’
‘The only people who are friends with me anyway are vegans,’ Mr 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 gonna fight … and my mum, I’m still talking to my mum.
‘Otherwise, it’s quite limited. There’s some help from the outside from family wanting to do stuff.’
On Monday, more than 2600 people had jumped on the video to ridicule Mr Jenkins new lot in life.
‘From vegan to the meat grinder,’ one person commented.
‘We must all thank the Russians for saving Chinese people from being forced to be vegan,’ another wrote.
the Pro-Putin activist known as Aussie Cossack has thanked the Russian military for capturing Mr Jenkins
Meanwhile in Australia, Mr Jenkins’ friends have described him as a good person who had been an intelligent, well-liked classmate and ‘great sportsman’ who represented the first XI cricket and first XVII football teams.
Mr Jenkins’ LinkedIn profile lists him as a former member of Toorak-Prahran Cricket Club.
The president of the club, Neil Gumley, said Mr Jenkins was a typical cricket-loving Aussie who you’d want in any team.
Mr Gumley said Mr Jenkins, who batted at three and bowled first drop, had played in the senior men’s flag-winning team in 2013/14.
‘He’s just your typical Aussie, cricket playing (man),’ Mr Gumley told the Herald Sun.
‘He’s loved at the club. You’d want him in any team.’
Another mate claimed Mr Jenkins had become ‘sort of withdrawn’ since moving to China and had recently deleted much of his social media.
The interrogation footage was first shared by Alexander Sladkov, a Russian propagandist and military correspondent for Russia 1 and Russia 24 TV channels.
He said the Australian would now face trial and prison, while adding Russians were actively hunting for foreign fighters, potentially to secure prisoner swaps.
He said Ukrainian units were listed as targets if a foreign language was heard in the radio interception.
When asked by his interrogator how he was being paid, Mr Jenkins said he was paid Ukrainian hryvnia into a PrivatBank account, the nation’s largest bank.
According to the International Legion recruitment website, monthly pay matches enlisted soldier pay in regular Ukrainian units, ranging from approximately US$600 a month for rear-line troops to $3,300 a month while on a combat deployment.
At least eight Australians have been killed since Vladimir Putin’s troops launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, including Victorian man Joel Benjamin Stremski, and Queenslanders Brock Greenwood and Matthew Jepson, who died while holding off Russian troops in the country’s east in October.
However, Mr Jenkins is the first Australian known to have been captured by Russian or Russian-aligned forces.
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