Russia has sentenced an Australian citizen to 13 years in a maximum-security prison for fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, state prosecutors in a part of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia say.

Oscar Jenkins, 33, was found guilty by a court of taking part in an armed conflict as a mercenary, a statement from the prosecutors said on Friday.

The court had ruled he had taken part in combat operations against Russian troops between March and December 2024.

Australian media reported in 2024 that Jenkins, a teacher from Melbourne, was serving alongside Ukraine’s military when he was captured by Russian forces.

In January, Australia summoned the Russian ambassador over what turned out to be false reports that Jenkins had been killed after being captured by Russia.

Ukrainian ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko has previously said his government added Jenkins to its list of prisoners of war and would negotiate for his release in an exchange.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said Australia has made representations to Ukraine, including a one-on-one discussion he had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Talks yield POW swap

Russia says the first direct talks with Ukraine in more than three years have yielded a deal to swap 1000 prisoners of war each soon and to resume talks after each side has set out its vision for a future ceasefire.

In a short statement shown live on Russian state TV after the negotiations in Istanbul had wrapped up, Vladimir Medinsky, the head of Russia’s delegation, said that Russia was satisfied with progress made and was ready to keep talking to Ukraine.

“In general, we are satisfied with the result and are ready to continue contacts. In the coming days, there will be a massive thousand-for-thousand prisoner exchange,” Medinsky said.

That would be one of the largest exchanges of its kind since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022 in what he called a special military operation.

“The Ukrainian side requested direct talks between the leaders of our states. We have taken note of this request,” Medinsky added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had challenged Putin to fly to Turkey for direct talks with him on Thursday, but Putin – who had proposed the talks in the first place but had not said who was going for Russia – sent a mid-level delegation of experienced negotiators instead.

In the event, the talks took place on Friday, not Thursday.

US President Donald Trump, who has tried to pressure both sides to move towards a peace settlement, has said he wants a 30-day ceasefire in an attempt to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.

Ukraine, which is on the defensive on the battlefield, has agreed to a 30-day ceasefire.

But Russia – which is slowly but steadily advancing on the battlefield and is worried that Ukraine will use such a pause to regroup and re-arm – has said it needs to nail down the terms of a ceasefire before signing up to one.

Medinsky said Russia and Ukraine had agreed to go away and set out in detail and in writing their vision for what a future ceasefire would look like.

“After such a vision has been presented, we believe it would be appropriate, as also agreed, to continue our negotiations,” he said.

In an interview with state TV released after his statement, Medinsky said that history showed that ceasefires did not always precede peace talks and that negotiations had been held throughout the Korean and Vietnam wars while fighting raged.

“As a rule, as Napoleon said, war and negotiations are always conducted at the same time,” Medinsky said.

The Kremlin said earlier on Friday that a meeting between Putin and Trump was essential to make progress on Ukraine and other issues but needed considerable preparation and had to yield results when it happened.

The talks in an Istanbul palace lasted well under two hours.

The negotiating teams sat opposite one another, with the Russians in suits and half of the Ukrainians wearing camouflage military fatigues.

“There are two paths ahead of us: one road will take us on a process that will lead to peace, while the other will lead to more destruction and death. The sides will decide on their own, with their own will, which path they choose,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told them at the start of the meeting.

As soon as the talks ended, Zelenskiy held a phone call with Trump and the leaders of France, Germany and Poland, Zelenskiy’s spokesperson said.

Russia’s demands were “detached from reality and go far beyond anything that was previously discussed,” a source in the Ukrainian delegation told Reuters.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russia had issued ultimatums for Ukraine to withdraw from parts of its own territory in order to obtain a ceasefire “and other non-starters and non-constructive conditions”.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the Russian position was “clearly unacceptable” and that European leaders, Ukraine and the US were “closely aligning” their responses.

EU readying new sanctions

The European Union is working on a new package of sanctions to increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says, as leaders from across Europe met in Tirana.

The EU, however, has already adopted 17 sanction packages – the latest one this week – and diplomats say it is increasingly difficult to get the necessary unanimity among the bloc’s 27 members to pass new measures.

“He does not want peace, so we have to increase the pressure, and this is why we are working on a new package of sanctions,” von der Leyen said on Friday, referring to Putin, before the European Political Community summit in Albania.

“This package will include for instance sanctions on Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. It will include working on listing more vessels of the Russian shadow fleet and also lowering the oil price cap, and also more sanctions on the financial sector in Russia.”

Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, each consisting of two pipes, were built by Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom to pump natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea. They were ruptured by a series of blasts in 2022.

“Massive” sanctions European leaders have threatened in recent days would need US support to succeed, officials and diplomats have said.

“What we saw yesterday and overnight is yet more evidence that Putin is not serious about peace,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said as he arrived at the Tirana summit.

“He’s been dragging his heels, and I think it’s really important therefore, that we have absolute unity with our allies.

We’ll be working on that again today to be clear that there must be a ceasefire, but also to be clear that should there not be a ceasefire, then we will act together in relation to sanctions.”

—AAP