The Australian government has said it has “serious concerns” about an Australian citizen captured by Russian forces while fighting for Ukraine after new footage emerged of him looking emaciated and complaining of a broken arm.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told public broadcaster ABC on Tuesday that he had seen the video posted on YouTube of Oscar Jenkins.
Albanese said that while the footage “appears to confirm” Jenkins is alive, the government holds “serious concerns for Mr Jenkins’s welfare”.
“We’ve made it clear to Russia that Mr Jenkins is a prisoner of war and that there are obligations that kick in accordance with international humanitarian law, and they must be observed,” he said.
“We have called for Russia to release Mr Jenkins, so that he can come home to his family,” Albanese added.
Jenkins, a 32-year-old schoolteacher from Melbourne, was captured by Russian forces when fighting with the Ukrainian military. It is unclear when he left Australia for Ukraine.
In the footage, uploaded on February 8, Jenkins is dressed in cold weather camouflage clothing with a green wool hat. He looks uncomfortable, as a man behind the camera, speaking in English, says the date is January 17, 2025.
The unidentified man explains that earlier reports about Jenkins’s death were “not right”, before Jenkins tells the camera he “would like more freedom” and that he feels “a bit weak”.
“I have lost a lot of weight. I have a broken arm still, I think, and my hand is not good,” he said.
The date and authenticity of the footage could not be independently verified.
In December, video footage first emerged of Jenkins on pro-Kremlin social media accounts being questioned and slapped in the face by a man speaking Russian. The man, claiming to be Jenkins, responded in both English and Ukrainian, saying he was a biology teacher who lived in Australia and Ukraine.
Australian media, citing unnamed sources, then reported in January that Russian forces had killed Jenkins.
Responding to those reports last month, Albanese said it would be “absolutely reprehensible” if it was confirmed that Russian forces had done so, and pledged to take the “strongest possible action”.
Moscow then confirmed that Jenkins was still alive and being held as a prisoner of war, Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong announced in late January. The Russian government has provided no details on where Jenkins is being held or the conditions of his imprisonment.
Relations between Canberra and Moscow have been tense ever since a Russian missile downed Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, resulting in the deaths of 298 people on board, including 38 Australians.
Australia has also condemned Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine as “illegal and immoral”.
In the years since, Canberra has contributed more than 1.5 billion Australian dollars (about $950m) towards “important defence, economic, energy and humanitarian assistance” in Ukraine to support the country’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
