You WILL be executed and time is running out, Putin’s men in eastern Ukraine tell condemned Brit
British national Aiden Aslin has been told by his Russian captors that his execution will go ahead and that ‘time is running out’ for Britain to save him.
Aslin, 28, was captured alongside fellow Brit Shaun Pinner by Russian forces while fighting as part of the Ukrainian army in Mariupol last month.
The pair were handed a death sentence in an internationally unrecognised court in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic.
British foreign secretary Liz Truss called the sentences ‘a sham judgment with absolutely no legitimacy’, but the Government has thus far refused to intervene directly to prevent the sentence.
Truss has argued that a British governmental intervention could be seen to legitimise pro-Russian claims that Aslin and Pinner are ‘mercenaries’, despite them being paid members of the Ukrainian army with Ukrainian wives.
Now Aslin has reportedly told his parents he has been informed that ‘time is running out’ and that his execution will be carried out imminently.
Aslin’s grandmother Pamela Hall told the BBC: ‘Aiden was extremely upset when he called his mother this morning. The bottom line is Aiden has said the DPR has told him nobody from the UK has made contact, and that he will be executed.
‘There are no words… it’s got to be everyone’s worst nightmare to have your family threatened in this way.’
It is unknown whether Pinner, 48, has received the same chilling statement from his captors.
British national Aiden Aslin has been told by his Russian captors that his execution will go ahead and that ‘time is running out’ for Britain to save him
British war prisoners Aiden Aslin (first from the left) and Shaun Pinner (first from the right) were sentenced to death penalty by Donetsk court on June 9, 2022. A Moroccan man, centre, also received the same sentence
Aslin is pictured with facial lacerations and bruises after being captured
The British government says its citizens were regular soldiers and should be exempt under the Geneva Conventions from prosecution for participation in hostilities.
Truss said she believes the best way to resolve the situation is via the Ukrainians, and has held talks with Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba on the topic.
A Kremlin official meanwhile claimed British authorities did appeal for help in relation to the cases of Aslin and Pinner, but the note was ignored.
‘There was an approach by the British to us – they sent us a note but the note was so full of such arrogant and didactic expressions that it really didn’t produce any desire in us to cooperate in these questions,’ Ambassador Andrei Kelin told Russian state television.
‘They need to approach the DPR – our recommendation remains the same,’ Kelin said.
Though Russia does not carry out the death penalty, the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, whose independence is recognised only by Moscow, have it on their statute books.
‘I have cried buckets over this, but crying doesn’t help, I want do so something but I don’t know what to do,’ Ms Hall said of her grandson’s predicament.
‘After Aiden’s call this morning what am I supposed to think? I don’t want to lose heart but it’s very hard.’
A protest rally is being planned in support of Mr Aslin by the Ukrainian community in his home town of Newark this weekend to urge the government to step in on his behalf.
The leader of the DPR meanwhile claimed last week that the UK does not care about its citizens because it has not yet intervened in Aslin and Pinner’s executions.
Denis Pushilin said the pair will be executed by firing squad for participating in the war as ‘mercenaries’.
Pushilin, who is a prominent MP in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, says Britain has not pushed for their release, thereby showing disdain for its own people.
‘There has been no contact from the British authorities,’ he told Russian state-controlled news outlet RIA Novosti.
‘It’s my impression that they have a don’t-care attitude to their citizens, despite all their grandiose statements about how they are looking after their citizens.’
Head of the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Denis Pushilin attends the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Saint Petersburg, Russia June 16, 2022
British citizen Aiden Aslin, 28, stands behind bars in a courtroom in Donetsk
British national Shaun Pinner, 48, is pictured in a cage in a Donetsk courtroom where he was handed a death sentence
Shaun Pinner, pictured with wife Larysa, now faces execution by firing squad after surrendering to Russian forces in Ukraine
Denis Pushilin, the leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic controlled by Russia-backed separatists, gestures speaking to foreign journalists in an area of the Mariupol Sea Port, close to where Aslin and Pinner were taken prisoner
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov recently told reporters in a conference call that London had not contacted Moscow about the issue.
He said: ‘Of course, everything will depend on the appeal from London, and I am sure that the Russian side will be ready to consider it.’
But Britain has so far declined publicly to raise the issue with authorities in the DPR, with Truss warning that if British authorities were to intervene directly it could be seen to validate Russian claims the detainees are mercenaries.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has intervened in the case of a Moroccan man sentenced to death alongside Aslin and Pinner.
The Strasbourg-based court will indicate to the Russian government that it should ensure the death penalty imposed on Brahim Saadoune is not carried out.
Saadoune was sentenced to death in the same hearing as the Brits, with whom he shared a cage in the courtroom.
It is not known whether Pinner or Aslin have made requests to the ECtHR.
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