Two Britons captured by Russia while fighting for Ukraine have been forced to beg Boris Johnson to exchange them for a pro-Moscow politician as Vladimir Putin attempts to make them pawns in his bloody war.
Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, who had been serving in the Ukrainian marines, were captured by Putin’s troops in the besieged city of Mariupol last week.
The pair were dragged on to Russian state TV today where they were forced to watch a video of Oksana Marchenko – the wife of Kremlin ally Viktor Medvedchuk who is being held by Ukraine – begging for his freedom.
Medvedchuk – known both as the ‘prince of darkness’ and Putin’s ‘grey cardinal’ – is one of Ukraine’s richest men and the Russian strongman’s closest political ally in the country, having helped exert Kremlin pressure in influential circles in Kyiv.
He was re-arrested in Kyiv last week while allegedly trying to flee the country, having escaped from house arrest during the early days of the war.
Pinner and Aslin spoke after being prompted by an unidentified man who showed them the footage of Medvedchuk’s wife, and were almost certainly speaking under duress. The footage was shown on Russia’s main channel, Rossiya 1.
Shaun Pinner (left) and Aiden Aslin (right), Britons serving in the Ukrainian marines who have now been captured by Russia, appeared on state TV today
An unidentified man showed Pinner a video of Viktor Medvedchuk’s wife begging for his release, before Pinner appealed to Boris Johnson to facilitate the swap
An unidentified man showed Pinner a video of Viktor Medvedchuk’s wife begging for his release, before Pinner appealed to Boris Johnson to facilitate the swap
The same man also showed the video to Aslin, who also requested a prisoner swap for Medvedchuk – who is Putin’s closest ally in Ukraine
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