Oligarch to be

UKRAINE would be willing to trade a oligarch they captured for the release of Britons Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, sources revealed last night.

Former British soldier Pinner, 48, and care worker Aslin, 28, were handed death sentences by the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) last week after being captured fighting with Ukrainian forces in the port city of Mariupol.

Both hold Ukrainian citizenship and were officially signed up to Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, despite claims that they were mercenaries.

Mr Pinner’s family have said they are “devastated and saddened” by the trial and sentence.

Last night sources close to the government in Kyiv confirmed “nothing was off the table” in securing their release, adding “we know the debt of gratitude we owe to the United Kingdom”.

Ukraine is said to be willing to trade Viktor Medvedchuk, a pro-russian politician Ukraine arrested in April for treason and corruption, for the two Britons.

Medvedchuk, worth an estimated £400million, is a close friend to Vladimir Putin, boasting the Russian leader as godfather to his daughter, Daria.

He was widely expected to be installed as Ukraine’s new puppet president had Russian forces succeeded in taking Kyiv in the opening days of the war.

Separate sources in Ukraine last night said a military rescue for the Britons was a possibility.

Whether this was discussed with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace when he visited Kyiv on Friday could not be confirmed.

With both Pinner and Aslin given a month to appeal, it is widely believed the show trial and subsequent sentences are a political move.

Footage of the kangaroo court showed the men – along with Moroccan national Saaudun Brahim – standing behind bars as their fates were revealed.

They were shown watching a video of Medvedchuk’s wife, Oksana, making an appeal for her husband to be exchanged.

But Ukrainian government officials were pessimistic last night.