Ukraine war: British fighter jet filmed singing Russian national anthem after being captured by Putin’s forces | World News
A British man captured by Vladimir Putin’s forces in Ukraine has been filmed singing the Russian national anthem weeks after being sentenced to death.
Aiden Aslin didn’t shave and kept her hair short while singing “The State Anthem Of The Russian Federation” in a small room with bars on the window and a table in the middle.
The 28-year-old, from Newark in Nottinghamshire, was wearing a blue tracksuit and red shirt over a red T-shirt as he sang the national anthem for about two minutes.
Russia ‘stores weapons in nuclear plants’ – war live updates
He stands next to former US police officer John Dougan, who moved to Russia in 2016 and is now believed to be a prominent conspiracy theorist who helped spread pro-Moscow disinformation online.
In a video shared by Russia Today journalist Roman Kosarev on the messaging app Telegram on Friday, Mr. Dougan nodded and smiled throughout the performance.
He then clapped when Mr Aslin stopped singing and told him the performance was “awesome”.
In a post accompanying the video, Kosarev said that Aslin’s cellmates told him he had a talent for singing after hearing him perform the song.
Mr Dougan is then said to have asked Mr Aslin if he would be happy to sing the national anthem in front of the camera.
“He happily agreed, and that’s what happened,” Kosarev added.
Sky News has chosen not to show the video.
Read more:
Russian ambassador warns war ‘prolonged’
Video shows ‘last minutes’ of young girl killed in strike in Russia
Please use Chrome browser for more accessible video player
June: Aiden Aslin reacts to the death sentence
Former care worker joined the Ukrainian armed forces in 2018
Mr. Aslin is one of two British men who have sentenced to death by a Russian-backed court in June after fighting in Ukraine.
The former homecare worker and Shaun Pinner, 48, have been accused of being mercenaries.
Mr Aslin joined Ukraine’s armed forces as a marine in 2018 and has applied for naturalization.
He also has a Ukrainian fiancée.
The British boxer said “God will judge me when the time comes” after he was sentenced to death.
‘The new reality has begun’ – listen to Ukraine War Diaries
Please use Chrome browser for more accessible video player
The British were sentenced to death
State Department criticizes ‘fake verdicts’
Mr. Aslin and Mr. Pinner were arrested in Mariupol in April during an intense battle for control of the Ukrainian port city, before appearing in court in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), a pro-Russian separatist region in the east. Ukraine.
They were found guilty of “mercenary activities and carrying out actions aimed at usurping power and subverting the constitutional order of the DPR”, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.
The UK Foreign Office considers the rulings “sham rulings” and is backing Mr Aslin and Mr Pinner’s family.
The men say they are serving with regular military units in Mariupol, and should therefore be protected by the Geneva Conventions as prisoners of war.
Mr Aslin’s family said in a statement after the ruling that the pair were not mercenaries and they needed time to “process things through”.
It continued: “We love Aiden with all our hearts. He and Shaun, as members of the Ukrainian armed forces, should be treated with the same respect as any other prisoner of war.”
They said they hoped the sentence would be overturned, and they called on the British and Ukrainian governments to “do everything in their power to bring them back safely and to us soon”.
It added: “We can only imagine what they are going through right now. This is a very frustrating development.”
