The federal government has been urged to evacuate an Australian citizen who was seriously injured after stepping on a landmine while fighting for Ukraine on the country’s far eastern front.
Friends of the 38-year-old foreign fighter, who is being treated in a Ukrainian hospital, warn he needs urgent specialist treatment to avoid losing limbs and are lobbying Australian diplomats to intervene in his case.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was providing consular assistance to the man but was unable to provide further comment due to privacy obligations.
The man, who Guardian Australia has identified but decided not to name, described his frontline experience in a statement shared by a Ukrainian/Australian man who is supporting him in hospital.
“I came within 15 metres of the enemy’s position where I started to move in for an assault,” the Australian foreign fighter said. “I stood on a mine.”
“My evacuation took 20 hours. I was given no first aid. Blown-apart foot, not bandaged. Snapped and shattered leg, no splint. Blown-apart hand, no bandage.
“I nearly bled out as I had to use a tourniquet and back it off every hour to keep from losing my arm.”
Images seen by Guardian Australia confirm the severity of the man’s injuries.
Former Australian army officer and lawyer, Glenn Kolomeitz, was provided a copy of the man’s statement on Monday night. He was urged to pressure several Australian politicians to arrange the man’s “casualty evacuation” out of Ukraine.
“This guy needs to get out there to a better hospital,” Kolomeitz said. “He needs surgery very rapidly and the best way to do that is for Australia to casualty-evacuate him to Australia or another European nation.
“Ukrainian medical facilities are good, we are not being critical, but because of the sheer quantum of combat trauma it is difficult to get on top of these cases sometimes.”
Confirmation of the man’s injuries comes one day after the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and other senior politicians urged Australians not to visit Ukraine.
Australian officials are scrambling to locate another foreign fighter in Ukraine, 32-year-old Oscar Jenkins, after a video purporting to show his capture by Russian forces of Ukraine’s eastern front circulated online.
In the video, Jenkins has his hands bound with what appears to be tape or plastic. He is wearing military fatigues and has dirt on his face. Answering in English and broken Russian, he says he lives in Australia and Ukraine.
Guardian Australia understands federal officials are working to verify the authenticity of the video and details about the man involved. Anthony Albanese noted that Russian forces sometimes seeded incorrect information.
On Tuesday, an American foreign fighter in Ukraine who described Jenkins as a close friend told the ABC he was “worried sick about him” and believed he was “fighting to survive for as long as he can”.
“He was in it for Ukraine and now being captured and fighting to survive for as long as he can,” said the American, who was only identified by his call sign, Forrest. “And now he’s staying alive as best as he can. I’m just worried sick about him”.
Russia’s ambassador to Australia, Alexey Pavlovsky, was called to a meeting with Australian diplomats late on Monday to discuss Jenkins’s situation.
Albanese told reporters on Tuesday that Australian diplomats in Moscow were also “making representations to secure a positive outcome” for Jenkins.
“It is an opportunity for us to say that the warnings … about travelling to areas of conflict are ones that should be heeded by Australians,” Albanese said.
“This is not a safe or secure thing to do and there is a risk involved, but we will continue to, as we always do, make representations on behalf of Australians.”
The acting foreign minister, Mark Dreyfus, urged “the Russian government to fully adhere to its obligations under international humanitarian law, including with respect to prisoners of war”.
Nationals leader David Littleproud also implored Australians not to visit the region.
“This isn’t some great adventure,” Littleproud told Nine.
“I had to bring back the remains of a young man from my own electorate, Jed Danahay, who was over there as a medic helping Ukrainians in the war zone and was tragically killed.
“I never forget the look and the anguish and the pain in his mother’s eyes when I handed back his ashes to her.”
