Condemned Britons could be swapped for close friend of Putin
Moscow may spare two men sentenced to death if Ukraine releases ally of Russian president
RUSSIA is expected to use the death sentence handed down to two British men to intensify its push for a prisoner exchange with a close personal friend and ally of Vladimir Putin.
Aiden Aslin, 28 and Shaun Pinner, 48, were found guilty of “mercenary activities” by a court in separatist-held eastern Ukraine.
Both men had served in the Ukrainian military for several years and were captured as Russian forces seized the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.
Britain yesterday condemned the verdict as a “sham”, noting that the men’s enlistment in Kyiv’s army entitled them to prisoner-of-war status under the Geneva Convention.
The trial in Donetsk, a city in the separatist statelet known as the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR), lasted just three days and neither of the men were offered the opportunity to speak in their own defence.
Pavel Kosovan, one of their appointed lawyers, said the pair would “likely file for a pardon”, raising the possibility of a prisoner exchange. The two have a month to appeal.
Kremlin officials did not have an immediate comment on the verdict, but a senior Russian lawmaker sought to portray it as a ruling in an independent jurisdiction over which Russia has no influence. “The DNR is a sovereign state, and its court has the right to hand down such a verdict and carry it out,” Andrei Klishas, chairman of the constitutional committee of the upper house of Russian parliament, said.
Shortly after they surrendered in April with other members of Ukraine’s 36th Marine brigade, Mr Aslin and Mr Pinner were paraded on state Russian TV, pleading with the British Government to exchange them for the prorussian Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk. “If Boris Johnson really does care like he says he does about British citizens, then he would help pressure [Ukrainian president] Zelensky to do the right thing and return Viktor to his family and return us to our families,” Mr Aslin told a reporter.
He was handcuffed at the time, appeared dazed and repeated Russian propaganda lines about the abuses of the Ukrainian government.
Vladimir Putin is godfather to the daughter of Mr Medvedchuk, who led the most prominent pro-russian political coalition in Ukraine until he was arrested and charged with treason in May 2021. The multi-millionaire escaped from house arrest soon after the invasion of Ukraine in February this year – but he was swiftly recaptured by the Ukrainian secret service.
On the same day Russian state TV paraded the two British men, the Ukrainian SBU released a video of a bedraggled-looking Mr Medvedchuk pleading with Mr Putin to swap him for soldiers and civilians held in Mariupol.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian authorities announced that Mr Medvedchuk would soon appear in court on charges of high treason. He was accused of plundering national resources as well as spying on the Ukrainian military on behalf of Russia.
Hopes for a possible prisoner exchange were raised yesterday by the low profile of the coverage given to the case of Mr Aslin and Mr Pinner on Russian state media.
The verdict offered the Kremlin a chance to double down on its claim that foreign mercenaries are slaughtering Russian speakers in Ukraine. But the case was not the top headline on the 7 o’clock news on Rossiya One, nor was it prominently covered on popular statecontrolled websites.
Pundits earlier this week openly discussed using the captured Britons as leverage against the UK Government.
On Wednesday, Rossiya One TV host Vladimir Solovyov said that a death sentence for Mr Aslin and Mr Pinner would be “a very big problem for Boris Johnson”. Panellists on his show discussed the best way to execute the men, be it by firing squad or hanging. One suggested “exchanging those mercenaries for Russia’s assets frozen” in the West.
‘Pundits on Russian TV openly discussed using the captured Britons as leverage against the UK Government’