Australian prisoner Oscar Jenkins has described surviving for four days in a trench with a broken arm before being captured by Russian forces, in his first interview since he was sentenced to 13 years in prison after fighting for Ukraine.
The former Melbourne teacher said he lost contact with his unit during a chaotic operation in Russian-controlled territory and remained hidden with limited sleep, food and water. He said a drone dropped a grenade, leaving him with a broken arm and an injured leg.
“There were drones – a drone dropped a grenade,” Jenkins said in the interview, conducted inside a maximum-security prison in occupied Luhansk. “Broken arm here, problem with the left leg, moved back into the same hole, waited another two days.”
He said he was eventually approached by a man who asked whether he needed assistance. Jenkins followed him into a camouflaged dugout, where three Russian soldiers were waiting.
“They asked me who I was; I said I was a Ukrainian soldier and then I got captured,” he said.
Jenkins, who had worked as a biology teacher in China and had no previous military background, said Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 prompted him to join the Ukrainian armed forces.
“It felt like the right thing to do if a country invades another country,” he said. “If there’s not a good reason for that – like Taiwan – then that’s something I should stand up for.”
He added: “I’m a young guy. It’s not that my life doesn’t mean anything to me, but sacrifices might need to be made. That’s still the attitude I have.”
Oscar Jenkins offers to fight for Russia
In a striking development, Jenkins said he had written to Russian authorities offering to serve in their military if he was given the chance.
“I’ve written a statement saying I’d be happy to fight as a soldier for Russia,” he said. “But if they don’t trust me for whatever reason or don’t want me then I can understand.”
The interview was carried out over two days by Mark Lowe, an Australian English teacher who has lived in Vladivostok for four years. Lowe said he had spent more than a year trying to arrange access to Jenkins and used contacts among Russian officials to secure permission.
He said the interview was intended for a documentary aimed at giving Western audiences “a different perspective” on the war. Lowe also runs a website that reports sympathetically on Russia and Vladimir Putin’s government.
The circumstances surrounding the interview could not be independently verified. Lowe said Russian authorities imposed no conditions and denied that he had been pressured to conduct it.
Jenkins said he travelled from Australia to Poland before taking a bus to Ukraine, where he approached officials and volunteered. He underwent about a month of processing before being assigned to a machine-gunner role.
He said his unit included Ukrainian troops and American, French and British volunteers, and that he took part in around nine or 10 missions. According to Jenkins, the group was part of the Ukrainian army but operated with limited resources and a degree of separation from other forces.
He was captured in December 2024 while serving in Ukraine. In May 2025, a court in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region sentenced him to 13 years in a maximum-security penal colony after finding him guilty of taking part in an armed conflict as a “mercenary”.
The Australian government has rejected that classification and has repeatedly said Jenkins should be treated as a prisoner of war. Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong described the proceedings as a “sham trial” and said Russia was obliged to treat him humanely and in accordance with international humanitarian law.
The case attracted international concern after footage emerged showing Jenkins bound and being questioned by Russian forces following his capture. Australia has continued to make representations on his behalf.
