MOSCOW | Russian state television broadcast calls on Monday from two prisoners, identified as British nationals, Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, captured in fighting in Ukraine, asking Prime Minister Boris Johnson to negotiate their release.
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The two men, who appear with drawn features, are asking to be exchanged for Viktor Medvedchuk, a wealthy Ukrainian businessman close to Vladimir Putin and arrested in Ukraine. They do not specify who is currently holding them, Russian forces or their separatist allies in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine.
The two recordings are presented as interviews with journalist Andreï Roudenko, of the Russian public television (VGTRK).
Aiden Aslin (l) and Shaun Pinner (r) | credit: tvzvezda
The latter shows the two men a video published last week by Oksana Marchenko, the wife of Viktor Medvedchuk, who asks for the exchange of her husband against the two Britons.
The detainees then take the floor in English to ask for an exchange. The place of their detention is not specified.
According to Russian media, the two men were captured after fighting on the Ukrainian side in Mariupol. They are believed to be from a unit that surrendered last week to Russian forces.
In a statement from the UK Foreign Office, Shaun Pinner’s family said they are working with London, alongside relatives of Aiden Aslin, “also in Russian military custody”, to “ensure that their rights as that prisoners of war are respected under the Geneva Convention”.
His family points out that Shaun Pinner was “neither a volunteer nor a mercenary, but officially serves in the Ukrainian army in accordance with Ukrainian law”. He is part of the Navy.
He had settled in 2018 in Ukraine, his “adopted country” for four years, and married a Ukrainian, according to the text.
His family adds that he had served in the Royal Anglian Regiment, an infantry regiment in the British army, “for many years”, including in Northern Ireland and Bosnia with the United Nations.