Ukraine war: UK man freed in prisoner swap says he was ‘stabbed’, forced to sing Russian anthem

Aiden Aslin, who was detained by Russian proxies, said in an interview that interrogators had tortured him and promised him a ‘beautiful death’

He was taken prisoner while fighting for Kyiv and sentenced to death in June, before being freed in a swap involving the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

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British citizen Aiden Aslin stands behind bars in a courtroom in Donetsk, on June 9, 2022. Photo: AP

Published: 7:23pm, 25 Sep 2022

A British man freed from captivity in east Ukraine in a prisoner swap told Sunday how his captors stabbed him in the back and forced him to sing the Russian national anthem.

Aiden Aslin, who was freed and flown to Riyadh on Wednesday with four other Britons held by Russian proxies, told The Sun in his first interview back in Britain that interrogators tortured him, promising him a “beautiful death”.

Aslin, 28, from Nottinghamshire in central England, was living in Ukraine and serving in its Marines when Russia invaded in February.

He was taken prisoner while fighting for Kyiv and sentenced to death in June by Russia-backed separatists in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, charged with being a mercenary.

Briton Aiden Aslin, left, and two other detainees at a sentencing hearing at the Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic on June 9, 2022. File photo: EPA-EFE

Aslin told The Sun he was repeatedly beaten with a truncheon during interrogation and at one point fell to the floor after being hit on the forehead.

An officer knelt by him and told him in Russian, “I am your death”, Aslin said.