joining the Ukrainian forces in 2024<\/a> \u201cfelt like the right thing to do\u201d.<\/p>\n\u201cIf a country invades another country, why?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if there\u2019s not a good reason for that, like Taiwan, then that\u2019s something that I should stand up for.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a young guy. It\u2019s not that my life doesn\u2019t mean anything to me, but sacrifices might need to be made. That\u2019s still the attitude I have.\u201d<\/p>\n
The extraordinary interview was held over two days within the prison and conducted by a fellow Australian, Mark Lowe.<\/p>\n
Mr Lowe is an English teacher who has been living in Vladivostok for four years and runs a website that reports favourably on Russia and the Putin regime, the ABC reports.<\/p>\n
He told the ABC he sought permission from Russian authorities for a year to hold the interview with Mr Jenkins.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s geared to a western audience to enlighten them as to what really goes on in Ukraine,\u201d he told the ABC of his work.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo give them a different perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Lowe also said he believed the Russians approved of his \u201cobjective\u201d writing on his website, thus gaining their trust to conduct the interview with Mr Jenkins.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Mr Lowe, a gaunt-looking Mr Jenkins detailed how he travelled to Ukraine and was ensconced in the warfare.<\/p>\n
However, before he joined the force, he had also considered whether he should fight in Myanmar or in Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going to go to Israel. It just felt a little bit too hard for me because I wasn\u2019t Israeli or something. But now I think I could have done it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just thought if I were going to go to war, then Israel would be a good bet, but I chose Ukraine because it was easier, I think, just fly in and go there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flying from Australia to Poland, Mr Jenkins took a bus to the border where he met with authorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey asked me: \u2018What are you going to do\u2019?,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said: \u2018I\u2019m going to volunteer\u2019 and that was enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was told I was going to be a machine-gunner on the front \u2026 four of us got in the armoured vehicle to go to the position; I was dropped off not knowing that it was essentially Russia, it was a Russian position that I was in already.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a whole bunch of drones, grenades going off from the moment we left that vehicle. There was a lot of chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n
After spending four days in a trench with a broken arm and damage to one leg, a man approached him to ask if he \u201cneeded a hand\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then we walked five metres forward, 10 metres forward into a blindage [camouflaged dugout], and there were three soldiers there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey asked me who I was; I said I was a Ukrainian soldier and then I got captured.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Jenkins graduated from Melbourne Grammar School in 2010, before studying at Monash University.<\/p>\n
He then moved to China where he worked as a teacher for close to a decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Melbourne man imprisoned in Russia after being captured fighting for Ukraine has given his first interview since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[135955,37849,74144,17327,135956,135935,135950,36656,41565,41051,135925,135953,135960,135952,135933,59869,45784,38132,38151,135957,37420,65984,135936,135926,58689,37726,58216,135940,60091,135922,40405,135958,91275,37834,135932,135951,135928,23,43100,46272,2285,37757,14595,1796,135934,135939,48934,37991,68019,135943,135941,135962,49071,1554,135963,6969,135923,100720,260,135930,135921,135929,135961,135948,39252,59128,135945,135947,48920,33027,241,10583,135937,51871,20720,135944,39660,135954,135931,134577,48240,38662,48439,135946,47672,56137,47838,40574,37772,38812,67306,135924,47447,135927,109978,135942,135938,132393,135959,50954,240,135949,19844,309,61457,50320],"class_list":["post-83641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-10-metres","tag-13-years","tag-74144","tag-17327","tag-a-sham-mr-jenkins","tag-a-blindage-camouflaged-dugout","tag-a-broken-arm-and","tag-a-bus","tag-a-country","tag-a-decade","tag-a-different-perspective","tag-a-fellow-australian","tag-a-former-melbourne-grammar-student","tag-a-gaunt-looking-mr-jenkins","tag-a-good-bet","tag-a-good-reason","tag-a-hand","tag-a-little-bit","tag-a-lot","tag-a-machine-gunner","tag-a-man","tag-a-melbourne-man","tag-a-russian-jail","tag-a-russian-position","tag-a-soldier","tag-a-statement","tag-a-teacher","tag-a-trench","tag-a-trial","tag-a-ukrainian-soldier","tag-a-website","tag-a-western-audience","tag-a-whole-bunch","tag-a-year","tag-a-young-guy","tag-an-english-teacher","tag-another-country","tag-australia","tag-authorities","tag-chaos","tag-china","tag-close","tag-damage","tag-drones","tag-first-interview","tag-five-metres","tag-four-days","tag-four-years","tag-grenades","tag-his-objective","tag-his-first-interview","tag-his-website","tag-his-work","tag-israel","tag-israeli-or-something","tag-jail","tag-mark-lowe-mr-lowe","tag-may-last-year","tag-melbourne","tag-melbourne-grammar-school","tag-melbourne-man-oscar-jenkins","tag-monash-university-he","tag-mr-jenkins","tag-mr-lowe","tag-my-life","tag-myanmar","tag-one-leg","tag-oscar-jenkins","tag-permission","tag-poland","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-russian-authorities","tag-sacrifices","tag-taiwan","tag-that-vehicle","tag-the-abc","tag-the-abc-reports-he","tag-the-armoured-vehicle","tag-the-attitude","tag-the-australian-government","tag-the-border","tag-the-conflict","tag-the-extraordinary-interview","tag-the-first-time","tag-the-force","tag-the-front","tag-the-interview","tag-the-moment","tag-the-position","tag-the-prison","tag-the-putin-regime","tag-the-right-thing","tag-the-russians","tag-the-sentence","tag-the-ukrainian-forces","tag-the-warfare-however","tag-their-trust","tag-three-soldiers","tag-two-days","tag-ukraine","tag-vladivostok","tag-volunteer","tag-war","tag-whatever-reason","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}