Jeremie Munso finished paramedic training in February. His family says he died in Ukraine in August, staying with the wounded

A young Australian medic who went to Ukraine to treat the wounded has been killed there, his family says, in a death that took more than two months to reach the public and has still not been officially confirmed.

Jeremie Robert Munso was 22. His family says he died on 27 August, after he was injured going to the aid of wounded members of his team. When the unit came under enemy fire and was forced to move, they say, he stayed behind with the injured. His body has not been recovered.

The family says it has independently confirmed his death. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says it is providing support to the family and is working with Ukrainian authorities to confirm what happened. DFAT has previously noted that confirming deaths in Ukraine can take considerable time, and that its ability to help Australians there is limited by the war.

Who was he?

Munso served in the Australian Army reserve and trained as a paramedic in Melbourne, graduating in February this year. He then joined Med Team Alpha, a medical unit within Ukraine’s International Legion, the force Kyiv created for foreign volunteers in 2022.

In an email to Ukraine’s military, he said he wanted to do his part against what he called an “illegal and immoral invasion”.

His mother, who asked not to be named, described a son with “a strong sense of purpose and a genuine desire to help others”. She said he died going back to help injured members of his team.

Did he go for the money?

The International Legion advertises pay of up to about $14,600 a month for assault missions. Munso’s family says money was not what drew him, and that as a medic he was paid only a small amount to cover incidentals.

Why did it take so long to come out?

The first word of Munso’s death did not come from Kyiv or Canberra. Posts on Russian-aligned channels on Instagram, X and Telegram began naming him last week, linking his death to the same incident in which Shane “Mozzie” Bagley, a former Australian Army combat medic, was killed. VNN has not been able to confirm that the two men died in the same incident.

That pattern is now familiar. Russian-aligned accounts regularly publish the names of foreign fighters they say have been killed. Some of those claims turn out to be speculation; some prove accurate. For families in Australia, it can mean learning of a death from the enemy’s social media before any government can verify it, particularly when a body is left in contested ground.

How many Australians are fighting there?

No one knows precisely. The federal government does not publish a count of Australians who have gone to fight for either side, and its travel advice for Ukraine remains “do not travel”. Ukrainian authorities have previously suggested as many as 16,000 foreigners from more than 72 countries have served in their forces.

Munso is among a small number of Australians reported killed fighting for Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, and the second medic from the same unit reported dead this year.

What does Remembrance Day have to do with it?

Nothing official, but the timing is stark. The family’s account became public on 11 November, as Australians stood for a minute’s silence for those killed in wars a century ago, some of whose bodies were never recovered either.