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September 1, 2026 \u2014 8:10pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n London: A former Australian Defence Force soldier hailed as a legendary combat medic has been killed in Ukraine while under fire from Russian forces, drawing praise for his \u201cselfless\u201d commitment to others.<\/p>\n The soldier, known by his call sign \u201cMozzie\u201d in Ukraine where he was fighting as a volunteer, was killed in action last Wednesday, according to his former Australian Army colleague, federal Liberal MP Phillip Thompson.<\/p>\n Thompson said Mozzie served with the Townsville-based 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, and was deployed to Butterworth in Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a valued member of the battalion\u2019s heavy weapons platoon, affectionately known as the \u2018Fatboys\u2019, and earned the respect of all who served alongside him,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter leaving the Australian Army, Mozzie travelled to Ukraine where he saw significant combat and later joined Med Team Alpha, serving as a combat medic and support specialist with the 1st Foreign Legion Squadron.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough his courage, skill and selfless commitment to others, Mozzie saved countless lives on the battlefield. He was the kind of bloke who never hesitated to put others before himself.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a good man, a great soldier, and someone his mates could always rely on when it mattered most.\u201d<\/p>\n The news drew emotional reactions from supporters of the volunteer soldiers who have fought for Ukraine, including the Protect a Volunteer (PAV) group.<\/p>\n \u201cMozzie was a legend,\u201d one group member posted on social media site Reddit.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cThe stories about him are crazy but true. He once transfused his own blood, several times over several days, to stabilise a guy and make him able to get evacuated.<\/p>\n \u201cAnother time he [exfiltrated] himself due to injury then went BACK and saved Fifty.<\/p>\n \u201cI never actually met him myself. I only met his teammates because Mozzie was always out in the field. But he holds the all-time record for people contacting PAV just to say good things about him.\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has not made any public comment on his death. Mozzie\u2019s full name was not released due to a request from his family for privacy.<\/p>\n Related Article Another former Australian Army soldier, Samuel Pedrazzini, died in June in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.<\/p>\n Pedrazzini, 26, had trained Ukrainian soldiers in the United Kingdom, as part of a longstanding NATO project, before resigning from the ADF and travelling to Ukraine to volunteer as a soldier last year.<\/p>\n A funeral service for Pedrazzini was held in the western Ukrainian town of Chukalivka, near Ivano-Frankivsk, early in July.<\/p>\n His commander, whose call sign is Alex, praised the Australian for his military skill, according to a report in The New Voice of Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cSam was an excellent machine gunner, a great marksman and a skilled medic. He was a person who could do absolutely everything,\u201d Alex said.<\/p>\n \u201cPrior to enlisting, he volunteered at stabilisation points to save wounded soldiers. Samuel deeply loved Ukraine and wanted to stay here.<\/p>\n \u201cAt some point, he realised that he wanted to fight for Ukraine, defend its freedom and independence, and become a part of this society.\u201d<\/p>\n The news follows the emergence of a video interview with another Australian volunteer fighter, Oscar Jenkins<\/a>, who was captured by Russian forces in December 2024 and is now in prison.<\/p>\n Jenkins was sentenced by a Russian court to 13 years in a penal colony, in a decision that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described as an outrage.<\/p>\n In the interview, Jenkins told Australian interviewer Mark Lowe, a teacher and amateur journalist based in Vladivostok, that he had offered to fight for Russia but had been turned down.<\/p>\n Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what\u2019s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/cd90bf0dbf38afee86ddfad36574cbc5d7b234a4.jpeg\")
The news of \u201cMozzie\u2019s\u201d death drew emotional reactions from supporters of the volunteer soldiers who have fought for Ukraine.Instagram<\/p>\n![\"Jenkins](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/d39f6fbfdc8215f5be4a64178f2c0f082dd770cf.jpeg\")
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David Crowe<\/a> is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"September 1, 2026 \u2014 8:10pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-876256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876256","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=876256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}