Ukraine pledged yesterday to free two British soldiers who were sentenced to death by Russia’s political thugs.
Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin were apprehended while fighting for Ukraine and are scheduled to be executed by firing squad.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss met with her Ukrainian colleague in Kyiv yesterday, amid widespread condemnation of Vladimir Putin’s puppet regime’s sham trial in occupied Donetsk, eastern Ukraine.
The horrified families of the two men were given a ray of hope when Ukraine’s envoy to the UK recommended that a prisoner swap be negotiated.
‘It will be an exchange,’ Vadym Prystaiko told BBC News. The most crucial question is how much this will cost.’
Mr Aslin’s MP, former Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick, who criticised the ‘disgusting Soviet-era style show trial,’ claimed the ambassador told him that the Ukrainians will give the Britons ‘full priority’ in prisoner-swap negotiations.
Mr Pinner, a 48-year-old Army veteran from Watford, and Mr Aslin, a 28-year-old former care worker from Newark, Nottinghamshire, both moved to Ukraine and joined the Ukrainian army in 2018. They were captured in Mariupol in April while serving with Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade.
Their three-day trial was labeled a war crime and a flagrant violation of their Geneva Convention rights as prisoners of war by the United Nations.
The White House is ‘gravely concerned,’ according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and the German government has condemned Russia’s ‘complete disregard for the basic principles of humanitarian international law.’
Larysa Pinner, Mr Pinner’s Ukrainian wife, slammed the ‘absurdity and cynicism of this disgusting and fraudulent event called a trial,’ warning that Russia will exploit the men ‘to the utmost – and this circus will go on for a long time.’
‘I continue to pray that our fighters will be able to withstand everything!’ She expressed herself on Facebook.
The Kremlin, which controls the so-called People’s Republic of Donetsk, continued to play political games yesterday, insulting the UK and encouraging it to negotiate directly with the Donetsk regime, despite the fact that it is not recognized by any country but Russia. The men’s ‘crimes’ were allegedly committed on the DPR’s territory, according to Moscow’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
Mr Pinner and Mr Aslin were found guilty of being ‘foreign mercenaries’ attempting to carry out terrorist acts by a kangaroo court in Donetsk.
Boris Johnson, who was “appalled,” instructed officials to do “all in their power” to achieve their release yesterday.
The government, on the other hand, is adamant not to engage in a frontal confrontation with Moscow over the men’s fate, knowing that doing so would confirm the Kremlin’s erroneous assertions that they were mercenaries rather than Ukrainian army recruits.
‘Our focus is cooperating with the Ukrainian government,’ said the Prime Minister’s spokesperson when asked if Britain will talk to Russia to obtain their release.
Miss Truss said she discussed efforts to win the men’s release with Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, after their phone call, adding, ‘The judgment against them is an egregious breach of the Geneva Convention.’
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who has been in the forefront of arming Ukraine, paid a visit to Kyiv two months after Mr Johnson and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who poured praise on Britain. ‘I am grateful to Great Britain, the Government, and the Prime Minister in general,’ Mr Zelensky said.
‘The battle has revealed who our true friends are – not just strategic allies.’ And I believe that the United Kingdom is a true friend.’
Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour Party’s leader, said there was “no party politics in this” and welcomed the government’s approach to the men’s release.
Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, both Britons, may never see their bodies again if they pay the ultimate price for serving their new country.
While the Donetsk People’s Republic has never carried out a death sentence, Vladimir Putin’s puppet administration does have a set of statutes controlling capital punishment.
The condemned man is detained in solitary confinement until the firing squad is gathered, and he has the option of having religious ceremonies performed by a clergyman.
According to the chilling protocols laid out in the Kremlin-controlled region’s Criminal Executive Code, victims are allowed a farewell encounter with relatives. Those same bereaved loved ones, though, are dealt a second blow.
‘The body of the executed prisoner is not delivered to his relatives, and his location of burial is not disclosed,’ according to the guidelines.
Even though Russia and Ukraine prohibit capital punishment, Donetsk claims to be a renegade state, despite Moscow’s control. Its penal code, which is not recognized by international law, is a revised version of Joseph Stalin’s severe laws.
Only criminals aged 18 to 65 may be sentenced to death, according to the document, and women cannot be executed.
The sentenced guy is permitted to have “one brief monthly meeting with close family” — presumably only if they are willing to go through the warzone to Russian-controlled area. He’s also allowed a ‘daily 30-minute walk.’
When the grim day approaches, the man is brought to the execution yard by armed guards. He will die alone under the penal law. ‘If multiple criminals are executed, each is executed separately and in the absence of the others,’ it says.