British POW says he owes his life to Abramovich

Dylan Healy says sanctions should be removed on Russian oligarch involved in negotiating his release

ONE of the British prisoners of war held by Russian separatists said last night that sanctions should be removed from Roman Abramovich for his part in freeing them.

Dylan Healy, 22, said he owed his life to the Russian oligarch, who had been involved in negotiating their release. He said none of the five Britons held in jail thought they would ever be released alive – and they had shared their stories in case one of them managed to do so.

Mr Healy spoke of his sadness that Paul Urey, 45, who had been captured with him, had died in detention. He said he would tell Mr Urey’s story, once he had permission to do so from the dead man’s family.

He told of the rescue as Angela Wood, the mother of fellow captive, Aiden Aslin, 28, said she was sent distressing images of her son being tortured.

Mr Healy was captured with Mr Urey on Apr 24 as they tried to rescue a Ukrainian family. Mr Healy, an aid worker, had gone on trial in Donetsk, falsely accused of being a mercenary, and faced the death penalty if convicted. He had no idea he was being released until boarding a flight from Russia to Saudi Arabia and discovering Mr Abramovich was on board.

Mr Healy, from Huntingdon, said: “We never thought we would get out. We only knew we were going home when we were on the plane at Rostov. Up to that point we thought we were going into Russia and that is not good. I am blacklisted in Russia and thought that’s not the place I want to be.”

Responding to suggestions that Mr Abramovich had intervened as part of a cynical charm offensive to have sanctions lifted, Mr Healy said: “My own personal view is I now have a lifelong debt to Roman Abramovich. He got us out of a situation that the Foreign Office couldn’t. I don’t believe he should have sanctions on him. And I want to point out he never asked us to say that. There was no other reason he was on that plane other than he was a good person.”

Mr Healy, who does not follow football, had no idea about the identity of

‘We never thought we would get out. We only knew we were going home when we were on the plane’

the former owner of Chelsea FC. He was spotted by Shaun Pinner, another of the captives, who approached Mr Abramovich and said: “You really look like Roman Abramovich”, to which the oligarch replied: “That’s because I am, sir.”

Mr Healy described his trial, as a “circus”. He shared a prison cell with Mr Pinner. Mr Healy said: “I thought I was going to die there.”

Mr Healy had travelled to Ukraine to help with the humanitarian aid effort. He arrived in Ukraine on March 14 and was captured a little over a month later.

Critics of the Putin regime have suggested Mr Abramovich’s involvement was part of a cynical attempt to free up billions of pounds of frozen assets.

Mr Abramovich, 55, remains under economic sanctions in the UK and the European Union, preventing him from accessing assets that include a vast property empire in Britain.

The £2.5 billion proceeds of the sale of Chelsea Football Club are understood to remain frozen, although Mr Abramovich has given an undertaking that the money cannot benefit any sanctioned individual, including himself.

But he remains off the sanctions list in the US and is keen to remain so at a time when Vladimir Putin has ratcheted tensions further with a mass mobilisation and the annexation of occupied Ukrainian territories.

The five hostages were at home with their families last night after spending months in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine. Two of the men, Mr Pinner and Mr Aslin, had been sentenced to death by firing squad after a sham trial. The other three, Mr Healy, John Harding and Andrew Hill, had been put on trial accused of being mercenaries and had also faced the death penalty if convicted.

Ms Wood, Mr Aslin’s mother, described being sent video clips that showed her son with his hands bound being yelled at by his captors in a jail in Russian-held Donetsk, Ukraine.

Similar images were sent to the family of Mr Pinner, who was captured by the Russians during the siege of Mariupol in April.

The 51-year-old mother of three told The Sun: “They knew how vulnerable the families were, how anxious we felt, and they tried to turn the screw in a bid to take us to breaking point.

“It was extremely hard to deal with – but we refused to play their games. As a mum, you’ll do everything to stop your children being harmed.”