Britain ‘doesn’t care’ about two soldiers on death row in Russia-occupied Ukraine, the breakaway region’s leader claims as he accuses London of failing to intervene to stop their execution
- Denis Pushilin declared Brits Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin would be executed
- He said Britain failed to intervene and therefore doesn’t care about its people
- Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said best way to intervene is through the Ukrainians
- She warned a direct British intervention could be seen to validate Russia’s claims the pair are mercenaries, despite them having fought as part of Ukrainian army
The leader of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic has claimed the UK does not care about its citizens because it has not yet intervened in the planned execution of two Britons captured in Ukraine.
Denis Pushilin declared that British nationals Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, who were captured in Mariupol, will be executed by firing squad for participating in the war as ‘mercenaries’ despite fighting as paid members of Ukraine’s armed forces.
The pair were handed a death sentence last week following a show trial which saw them locked in a cage as their fate was read out.
Now Pushilin, 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
British citizens Aiden Aslin (L) and Shaun Pinner (R) and Moroccan Saaudun Brahim (C) attend a sentencing hearing at the Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, 09 June 2022
Mr Aslin, 28, and Mr Pinner, 48, were members of regular Ukrainian military units fighting in Mariupol, the southern port city which was the scene of some of the heaviest fighting since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
They were captured last month when Russian forces overwhelmed the besieged and devastated port city of Mariupol and forced the small Ukrainian contingent holed up in the sprawling Azovstal steel plant to surrender.
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, a favourite target of Russian state media, said earlier this week that the best route to secure the release of Aslin and Pinner was ‘through the Ukrainians’.
Truss went on to say that she would do ‘whatever it takes’ to secure the release of Pinner and Aslin.
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.
Shaun Pinner, pictured with wife Larysa, now faces execution by firing squad after surrendering to Russian forces in Ukraine
The kangaroo court accused Pinner and Aslin (pictured) of being mercenaries, despite them serving as regular soldiers in the Ukrainian army
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
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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