16
Russia jails Australian man for fighting alongside Ukraine (www.bbc.com)
submitted 21 hours ago by yogthos@lemmy.ml to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml
8 comments fedilink hide all child comments
top 8 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Sodium_nitride@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 12 hours ago

Oscar Jenkins, 33, was convicted in a Russian-controlled court in occupied eastern Ukraine on Friday of fighting in an armed conflict as a mercenary.

Mr Jenkins, a teacher from Melbourne, was captured last December in the Luhansk region.

Prosecutors said he arrived in Ukraine in February 2024, alleging he was paid between 600,000 and 800,000 rubles (£5,504 and £7,339) a month to take part in military operations against Russian troops.

The article seems to claim that this guy is a mercenary, but someone in the comments is claiming that this guy is not a mercenary because he is a member of the UAF's foreign legion. I don't know if there is any additional context here that I am missing.

[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 4 points 21 hours ago

play stupid games, win stupid prizes

[-] gnutrino@programming.dev 1 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

What's a little contravention of the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War between friends?

[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 3 points 13 hours ago

He's a mercenary, and Russia already stated that they don't treat maundering mercenaries as soldiers.

[-] gnutrino@programming.dev 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

He is a member of the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine and as such is unambiguously not a mercenary by the definition used in the Geneva Convention and so is owed the protections afforded to prisoners of war.

Specifically, article 47 of Protocol 1 is clear that a neccesary condition to be considered a mercenary is that a person:

is not a member of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict

The fact that Russia has a history of ignoring this is not the knock-out argument you seem to think it is.

[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 hours ago

the article literally says he's a mercenary, try putting more effort into your trolling in the future

Oscar Jenkins, 33, was convicted in a Russian-controlled court in occupied eastern Ukraine on Friday of fighting in an armed conflict as a mercenary.

[-] gnutrino@programming.dev 3 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

It says he was convicted in a Russian-controlled court which is not at all the same thing. International law is clear on this and Russia is clearly breeching it.

Try putting some more effort into your trolling, I quoted the actual appropriate law.

[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 0 points 8 hours ago

If you bothered reading the points in the law you linked, then you'd quickly see that he very much falls under the category of a mercenary. The fact that a bunch of marauders got together and call themselves an "international legion" doesn't change the nature of what's happening. Keep on digging though, it's adorable.

this post was submitted on 17 May 2025
16 points (86.4% liked)

World News

35896 readers
621 users here now

News from around the world!

Rules:

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Rumblestiltskin@lemmy.ml
AgreeableLandscape@lemmy.ml
jackmarxist@lemmy.ml
zephyreks@lemmy.ml
OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml