An Australian man who was captured by Russian forces while fighting for Ukraine has been charged with being a mercenary in an armed conflict, authorities have said.
Oscar Jenkins, a 33-year-old teacher, was captured in December 2024, the prosecutor’s office in the occupied Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine said.
The office said it had “approved the indictment” against him under Russia’s criminal code.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australian officials “certainly have not” abandoned Mr Jenkins and “continue to make representations” on his behalf in response to a question from a reporter on Saturday.
Albanese told reporters that Australia will “stand up and use whatever avenues” at its disposal to make those representations.
The prosecutor’s office said Mr Jenkins arrived in Ukraine in February 2024 and took part in military operations against Russians.
They alleged he was paid 600,000-800,000 rubles (£5,504-£7,339) a month.
Prosecutors said he would appear in court.
A video surfaced in December last year showing Mr Jenkins with his hands tied, being hit in the face and questioned by Russian forces. They ask him if he is being paid to fight in Ukraine.
At the time, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong called for his release, and for all prisoners of war to be treated in accordance with international humanitarian law.
Mr Jenkins has been charged in the occupied Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, a province annexed by Moscow in 2022 that was previously under almost complete Russian control.
Just before launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognised all of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent of Ukraine. Russian proxy forces began an insurgency there in 2014.
Last month, a British man James Scott Rhys Anderson, 22, was jailed for 19 years by a Russian military court after being charged with terrorism and mercenary activity when he was captured in Russia’s Kursk region in November 2024.
He is the first British national to be convicted by Russia during the war.
