Aiden Aslin: From the hellhole of Syria to the ruins of Mariupol

Defeated, beaten and bruised, with a swollen eye and a nasty gash across his forehead, Aiden ‘Johnny’ Aslin’s worst fears that he would become a pawn in Putin’s deranged ‘bulls**t’ propaganda if he was captured by the Russians tragically came true this week.

The British former care worker was paraded on Kremlin-ba

Aslin, who appeared to have been tortured, was described as a ‘mercenary’ who had ‘fought on the side of the Nazis in Ukraine’ by Rossiya 1 TV news presenter Andrey Rudenko, as he was asked a series of questions about his motives for taking up arms.

Fighting with Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, who had themselves teamed up with the Azov regiment, a neo-Nazi unit of the National Guard of Ukraine which has allegedly committed war crimes in the east, Aslin was accused of ‘shelling kids in Donbas for years’, before he was forced to denounce his Ukrainian army comrades as ‘criminals’.

Now facing the nightmare possibility that Aslin will be bundled to Russia and executed, the 28-year-old’s terrified family today insisted that he is not a mercenary, and begged Putin to abide by the terms of the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war.

They also pointed out that for Aslin – who has lived in Ukraine for the past four years, has a Ukrainian fiancee and joint citizenship – is not a volunteer, but a ‘legit’ marine who has made the former Soviet republic’s fight for national survival his own fight.

It is a surprising twist in the tale for those unacquainted with Aslin’s tale – from taking up arms against ISIS maniacs in one of the worst wars to have engulfed the Middle East in decades, to his struggle against the British state after it accused him of terrorism.

Born in Newark, Nottinghamshire in 1994, Aslin worked as a care worker before deciding to join the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the US-backed militia which had spearheaded the fight against ISIS in Syria, to fight the jihadists in 2015.

Having learned of the atrocities committed by ISIS and their abuse of Kurdish people, and convinced that Britain was not doing enough to bring about their defeat, he made the extraordinary decision to run towards the sound of gunfire.

Aiden Aslin is pictured in military gear. Born in Newark in 1994, he worked as a care worker before deciding to join the YPG, the US-backed militia which had spearheaded the fig

cked TV from an undisclosed location after surrendering when he ran out of ammunition in Mariupol, the besieged southern port city which for many has become the lasting image of Moscow’s invasion.