{"id":590163,"date":"2026-04-07T00:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T00:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/590163\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T00:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T00:22:09","slug":"australian-army-reservist-to-face-court-after-allegedly-working-for-ukraine-military-without-authorisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/590163\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Army reservist to face court after allegedly working for Ukraine military without authorisation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">An Australian Army reservist will face an Adelaide court after he allegedly worked for the Ukraine military as a drone operator without authorisation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said officers began investigating the South Australian man after receiving a referral from the Department of Defence that he had worked for a foreign military without authorisation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">While it was not an offence for an Australian to join the armed forces of a foreign country, the AFP said &#8220;defence legislation regulates the work certain individuals can perform for a foreign military, government or company without authorisation&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;This is the first time the AFP has charged someone with this offence,&#8221; they said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Police said they executed a search warrant at a Felixstow home in Adelaide&#8217;s north-eastern suburbs on Thursday, April 2, and seized electronic devices including a mobile phone and a laptop.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Investigators alleged the electronic devices contained images linking the 25-year-old man to participation in a foreign conflict.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A man with hands cuffed behind him being escorted by a police officer into the backseat of a car parked on a suburban street\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/189f3ea1d1056d9552f1b463255cd767.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Police will allege the SA man had served as a drone operator for the Ukrainian Armed Forces last year. (Supplied: Australian Federal Police)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">It will be alleged the man travelled to Ukraine in May 2025 to serve as a drone operator for the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the war against Russia without authorisation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Police said he returned to Australia in January this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The man has been charged with one count of foreign work restricted individual working for a foreign military organisation or government body, contrary to section 115A of the Defence Act 1903, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years&#8217; imprisonment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The reservist is set to face the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">AFP Counter Terrorism Commander Paula Hudson said the agency worked closely with its local, Commonwealth and international partners to protect Australia\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">They asked anyone with information about individuals with sensitive defence knowledge intending to work for a foreign military or government body, or who have done so without authorisation, should contact the National Security Hotline 1800 123 400.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Australian Army reservist will face an Adelaide court after he allegedly worked for the Ukraine military as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[14040,29623,288232,288227,45387,64,63,7155,2025,154544,288233,288230,288229,288228,44,288231,2446],"class_list":{"0":"post-590163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-adf","9":"tag-afp","10":"tag-armed-forces-of-ukraine","11":"tag-army-reservist","12":"tag-arrest","13":"tag-au","14":"tag-australia","15":"tag-australian-army","16":"tag-charges","17":"tag-counter-terrorism","18":"tag-defence-act","19":"tag-defence-legislation","20":"tag-drone-operator","21":"tag-foreign-military","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-russian-war","24":"tag-ukraine-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}