Freed British hostage Shaun Pinner tells Good Morning Britain how he was stunned with an electric CATTLE PROD for being a West Ham fan while he was held captive by Russian forces in Ukraine
- Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner set free from captivity by Russian-backed forces
- They appeared in their first live joint TV interview since returning to the UK
- Mr Pinner said he was punished in response to which football team he supported
Freed British hostage Shaun Pinner has revealed he was stunned with a cattle prod for being a West Ham fan while he was held captive by Russian forces in Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner, John Harding, Dylan Healy and Andrew Hill were set free from captivity by Russian-backed forces in the Donetsk region of Ukraine after being sentenced to death and spending months in detention.
Ex-Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich reportedly negotiated the Russia-Ukraine prisoner swap, which saw the Brits travel home via Saudi Arabia.
This morning Mr Aslin, 28, and Mr Pinner, 48, were seen in their first live joint TV interview since finally returning home to their families.
Mr Pinner told ITV’s Good Morning Britain about the treatment he suffered at the hands of Russian-backed guards – and how he was punished in response to which football team he supported.
Shaun Pinner has revealed he was stunned with a cattle prod for being a West Ham fan while he was held captive by Russian forces in Ukraine
Mr Aslin, 28, and Mr Pinner, 48, were seen in their first live joint TV interview since finally returning home to their families
Mr Aslin said it ‘still hasn’t set in’ that he is back home in the UK as he spoke about their experience
‘We developed over time a comedic rapport with some of the guards,’ he said.
‘It was a strange feeling because we were told we were the enemy, but sometimes we would actually have some dialogue with them,’ he said.
‘They were interested in who we are, what London is like…’
He spoke of one occasion when he was in the prosecutor’s office and the guards were asking what football team he supported.
Mr Pinner said he was buzzed with a cattle prod for saying ‘West – [Ham]’ – before he quickly changed his answer to the local Ukrainian football team.
‘I said ‘Shakhtar Donetsk, Shakhtar Donetsk!’ and they were laughing and building that rapport,’ he said.
Mr Pinner said he was buzzed with a cattle prod for saying ‘West – [Ham]’ – before he quickly changed his answer to the local Ukrainian football team
The pair were set free from captivity by Russian-backed forces in the Donetsk region of Ukraine
Home safe: Aiden (right) posted a picture to Instagram on the plane home alongside fellow ex-hostages Shaun Pinner (second from right), John Harding (left) and Dylan Healy (sat behind)
Mr Pinner – who spoke about how his wife encouraged them to keep fighting – is back home with his family
Mr Aslin, who said he was subjected to beatings, a stabbing and psychological torment, said it ‘still hasn’t set in’ that he is back home in the UK.
He told GMB: ‘It’s still a bit surreal because as I said before, literally this time last week I was in solitary confinement we were treated in some horrendous conditions there and I was expecting I’d either be killed or I’d be spending at least 10 years minimum there, so it still hasn’t fully set in.’
He said they’d had their guard up for the last six months because of everything that had happened.
The British captives were given a last-minute reprieve months after being sentenced to death
The Foreign Office released this undated image of Shaun smiling with his family, which is thought to have been taken after his return home in the early hours on Thursday morning
Aiden promised Ukrainian girlfriend Diane Okovyta that he would see her again. But during the five months in solitary confinement, he admitted: ‘I never thought I’d get out alive’
Mr Pinner said the experience of being held by Russian-backed forces in the Donetsk region was ‘very scary’, despite having trained in the British Army and being aware of the risks of being captured while fighting for Ukraine.
He was asked about a moment when he was about to give up, having been sentenced to death, and rang his wife saying ‘I think it’s all over’.
Mr Pinner told GMB his wife replied: ‘You brought the world’s attention to Mariupol you are fighters, what you are doing is amazing, tell the guys to keep fighting. Just survive – she screamed at us. It kept us going all the way.’
Asked about supportive comments made by Liz Truss when she was foreign secretary about Britons fighting in Ukraine, Mr Pinner added: ‘Obviously we’ve got a lot of thanks to give Liz Truss… the Foreign Office have been great, but when we saw this we were aware that you get all sorts of people turn up in Ukraine who then want to be a part of the war.
‘We’d actually integrated, spent time there learning the language (and had military training in Ukraine), so they wanted us to help train their guys and we sort of fell back in the job in that aspect.’
Pinner (right) and Aslin (left) were sentenced to death, along with Moroccan Saaudun Brahim (centre) in June this year by a pro-Russian separatist court
Aiden Aslin arriving back at his home in Balderton, Newark after being released by Russian-back separatists following months in detention
Ms Truss later withdrew support for UK citizens joining the battle after being contradicted by colleagues, insisting instead she had just been ‘expressing support for the Ukrainian cause’.
The exhausted group landed in Britain in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The release came after an agreement was brokered by the Saudi Crown Prince to release a total of 10 POWs who had been captured during the fighting.
Mr Harding, Mr Pinner and Mr Aslin were hailed as defenders of ‘democracy and freedom’ by their former commander in Ukraine.
They are believed to have served in the Georgian Legion, a pro-Ukrainian volunteer unit, under Mamuka Mamulashvili.
Mr Pinner’s sister Cassandra earlier told MailOnline: ‘We are just relieved that he is home safe and sound, there are no words to express how thankful we are.
‘He is in good spirits, he is still his funny self, even at this difficult time. Health wise, he is surprisingly very well too.’
Meanwhile, Mr Aslin spoke of his ‘traumatic experience’ as he was reunited with family back at home in Balderton, Nottinghamshire.
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