The world media continue to publish more and more new details of the release from Russian captivity of 10 foreign citizens who fought on the side of Ukraine. As already reported by , they managed to be pulled out of the dungeons on the same day as the largest exchange of prisoners between Ukraine and Russia in the entire war.
Among the dismissed foreigners was 28-year-old Briton Aidan Aslin, who was sentenced to death by the puppet court of the “DPR” in the spring. On Sunday, September 25, the British newspaper The Sun on Sunday published an interview with Aidan. A day earlier, he was reunited with his mother and Ukrainian Diana Okovita, with whom he began to build a family life in Ukraine in 2018.
“I didn’t believe I could get out of there alive” - these are the first words that Aidan said to the journalist of the British edition.
In February 2022, Aslin went to fight against Russian infidels. In April, his battalion was cordoned off in Mariupol. The soldiers had to surrender. Aidan managed to call home and told his mother: “Whatever happens, we’ll see each other again!”
That promise, Aslin says, helped him endure the horrors of captivity.
“They flipped through my passport and quickly realized that I was not Ukrainian,” Aidan recalls.
“One of the soldiers asked me in Russian: “Where are you from?” I replied that I was from Great Britain. He immediately hit me in the face with his fist… They separated me from the others and began to interrogate me right in the BMP. When I was allowed to return to my colleagues, I told our commander that I would obviously be kept apart. And they will most likely get killed. I asked him, if he survives, to inform my family of what happened to me.” Aslin continues his story.
He was brought to the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic. At first, prisoners were kept in the center. On the head all the time was a hood that could not be removed. During each interrogation, the Briton was beaten with a bat. They beat him after each of his answers. He threatened to cut off his ear. They often hit me in the head.
Then an officer caught fire. He smoked all the time. “Do you know who I am?” he asked Aslin. Aidan replied that he did not know. “I am your death!” - said the officer and laughed. After these words, the Briton felt a sharp pain in his back. “Do you understand what I just did? the officer asked, and showed Aslin the bloodied knife.
“I realized that he pierced my back with this knife…” Aidan recalls.
How do you want to die? Fast or pretty? the officer asked. Aslin answered him in Russian: “Fast”.
“Not!” laughed his tormentor. “I will make sure your death is beautiful!” the officer said.
Aidan spent the next five months in a cell measuring 1.2 m by 1.8 m. He was kept there 24 hours a day. He did not see sunlight. Cockroaches and lice crawled on it. He was taken out only for interrogations and watching propaganda films. The Russian anthem was regularly played at full volume in the cell. When the window opened, Aslin had to shout loudly: “Glory to Russia!”
He was not allowed to communicate with his relatives. True, they were allowed to speak on the phone with employees of the British Foreign Office when they called to find out his physical condition.
In May, he was sentenced to death. “I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t. It was a matter of survival…” Aslin admits.
At the beginning of this week, they put a bag over his head, took him out of the cell and put him in a truck. There, they sealed his eyes with adhesive tape and wrapped his hands with the same film. They ordered me to sit bent over with my head pressed to my knees. Aidan did not know where he was being taken. He accidentally heard one of the escorts say the word exchange.
“I went crazy with joy, but I forced myself to calm down. “You could be wrong, you heard” I repeated.
It turned out that he was taken to the airport in Rostov-on-Don. When Aslin was taken out of the truck, one of the guards asked: “Have you heard of your queen?”
“I knew the queen was dead. Heard on the radio. But this question was so unexpected in that situation…” Aidan recalls.
He was allowed to remove the tape. And then, when his eyes got used to the light, Aslin saw several people. These were the Saudis. And with them is a man who looks like Roman Abramovich. Abramovich approached Aidan and offered him his hand. “It’s good that you are here with us” the businessman said.
“It was an incredible feeling. Less than 48 hours ago, I was in solitary confinement waiting to be executed. I was treated worse than a dog. And here I am aboard a private jet among people who are not going to hurt me.” Aslin says.
Source: Fakty
