SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
London: As Australian Oscar Jenkins awaits trial in a Russian-controlled prison, accused of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine, former British soldier Shaun Pinner knows all too well the torment that may follow.
Captured by Putin’s forces in 2022 while defending Mariupol alongside Ukrainian troops, Pinner spent five months in captivity, enduring torture, starvation, and psychological torment – an ordeal that still haunts him.
Shaun Pinner was taken prisoner by Russian-backed forces while fighting with Ukrainian forces in 2022
“But you should never lose hope in a situation like that,” Pinner says. “Because if you lose hope, you’ve lost everything.”
Originally sentenced to death by a Donetsk court in a Kafkaesque trial, during which his own lawyer argued for his guilt, Pinner offers chilling insight into what Jenkins may soon face.
Jenkins, 33, a former schoolteacher from Melbourne, was captured in December 2024 after joining Ukraine’s 66th Separate Mechanised Brigade. He now faces trial in the Russian-backed Luhansk People’s Republic, accused of being a “mercenary in an armed conflict”, a charge that could result in up to 15 years in prison. His case has drawn international concern, with the Australian government working through diplomatic channels to secure his release.
“Everything they do is about breaking you down,” says Pinner, speaking from his adopted home of Dnipro, in central Ukraine. “The darkest moments were when I was left alone in my cell for 12 hours. I just broke down crying, thinking I’d never get home.”
He warns that legal proceedings in Russian-occupied territories are largely performative. Still, Jenkins may avoid the lawlessness of a frontline POW camp by being held in a slightly more controlled facility.
“By the time my sham trial came around, I looked like I’d been in a death camp,” Pinner says. “We hadn’t seen daylight for 60 days. We were so malnourished, our skin went like crêpe paper and our fingernails became paper-thin.”
Fed mostly on scraps of bread, Pinner lost 20 kilograms. “My back went straight into my legs, my elbows protruded. I thought I was going to die of starvation before the trial.”
Recent videos released pro-Russian Telegram channels shows Jenkins in captivity, stating he has a broken arm and feels weak, while another features a medical examination where Russian captors joke about his blood pressure readings to confirm he is “not dead”.
Pinner warned Jenkins’s loved ones to prepare for coerced confessions, especially humiliating ones circulated on social media.
Oscar Jenkins as pictured in a video released by his captors.Credit: YouTube
“It won’t be a surprise if videos surface of Jenkins confessing to things he didn’t do,” Pinner says. “They’ll make him say he fought here, went there, committed unspeakable acts. You often say things that aren’t true just to make it end.”
Pinner’s ordeal began as soon as he was taken into Russian custody.
“They’ll hold you in a cell barely big enough to lie down. Sometimes the food’s awful; sometimes there’s nothing,” he says. “At first, I thought I’d been taken to an office building. It was dark, cold, with tiled walls. They strapped me to a chair and electrocuted me multiple times. The pain was so bad I couldn’t feel my legs afterward.”
His account matches a recent UN Human Rights Office report detailing systematic abuse of prisoners of war. Since August 2024, there has been a surge in credible reports of Ukrainian POW executions, at least 62 victims across 19 incidents. The UN has independently verified 15 of those deaths using video, photo evidence, and eyewitness accounts.
The same report documents widespread torture of Ukrainian captives. Of 42 recently released POWs, all reported enduring torture, including beatings, electric shocks, and solitary confinement. Sexual violence was also reported against both men and women.
“But the Russians aren’t stupid,” Pinner adds. “A Western soldier is a valuable negotiating tool. That doesn’t mean life gets easier, just different.”
What kept him going, he says, was the voice of his Ukrainian wife, Larysa, echoing in his mind: “Live, fight, survive.” That phrase became a mantra – and later, the title of his book.
Pinner and fellow Briton Aiden Aslin were freed in a high-profile prisoner swap brokered by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich, who greeted them after their release. The deal exchanged 10 foreign fighters for 215 pro-Russian captives.
But the ordeal didn’t end with freedom. Pinner still lives with chronic pain from injuries inflicted during beatings and stress positions.
British citizen Shaun Pinner sits behind bars in a Donetsk courtroom.Credit: AP
Determined to hold his captors accountable, he filed a lawsuit in Kyiv in 2023. In a landmark ruling earlier this year, the court awarded him financial compensation for torture suffered in Russian captivity.
“Russia needs to be held accountable. When it comes back into the real world, it’s going to have to settle these legal cases. It’s not about now, but the future, next year, 10 years, 20 years time,” he says.
But foreign fighters have played a complex role in Ukraine’s defence since the Russian invasion, with many joining the International Legion or integrating into Ukrainian brigades. Pinner himself was there well before, joining the Ukrainian military in 2018 as a sniper instructor as the country rebuilt its armed forces following the annexation of Crimea. Previously he’d spent nine years in the British Army’s Royal Anglian Regiment.
A recent report by the Royal United Services Institute noted that while some foreign fighters bring valuable military expertise, others lack discipline or combat readiness, creating operational challenges on the battlefield. Others are misfits and ideologues.
“Only a small percentage of there are any use,” he says. “Runaways, believers and killers. Normally you can fit them in one of those brackets … You really only want the killers.”
The report also warned that foreign volunteers face heightened legal and personal risks if captured, as Russia routinely labels them mercenaries, a classification used to deny them protections under the Geneva Conventions.
Pinner says it’s more important than ever that Ukraine has the world’s support.
“Because what happened to me, what might be happening to Jenkins – it could happen to anyone who stands up for what’s right,” he says.
As Jenkins faces the bleak prospect of long-term imprisonment in Russia, his survival may depend not only on international pressure, but on his own will to endure.
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.
