Ukraine War: Sky’s Stuart Ramsay recalls meeting condemning British on the front lines | World News

We drove through frozen forests on icy roads to a location outside Mariupol and rendezvous with a Ukrainian military commander.

We arrived early and were asked to park near a shop and wait to be escorted towards the front line.

Outside the rather rundown and rundown shop, groups of soldiers were drunkenly sipping hot cups of coffee and sipping sandwiches.

UK ‘deeply concerned’ over death sentence for Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner – live updates

A burly man exited the group, slung an AK-47 over his shoulder, and approached our open truck door.

I called our local producer to come and translate.

The soldier poked his head inside and said in a broad British accent: “You’re from Sky News, aren’t you?”

That was my first meeting with Aidan Aslin, back then he called himself Johnny Wood.

“It’s a nickname,” he said.

“My boss told me to stay here, let’s go somewhere else, I’ll meet you there.” And he left.

Sky producer Dominique Van Heerden spoke to Aidan and his maritime colleague Shaun Pinner on WhatsApp.

Before our meeting, they asked Dominique if we could bring them some reminders of the UK.

Shaun wants Marmite, and Aidan wants PG Tips.

We were out of the UK so we couldn’t do it.

“It’s okay,” Shaun replied. “If you can get some sausage maybe. I share it with the boys. These guys work day in and day out…so I want to give them something,” he wrote. .

The arrangement of this meeting took a lot of effort on all sides, especially for the two British men, who were uncomfortable appearing to be different or superior to their Ukrainian colleagues.

We continued to drive and came to a series of frozen trenches just a few hundred meters from the front lines of the Russian-backed separatists.

A soldier with a light beard, strong and slender figure walked up to me and shook my hand.

“I’m Shaun,” he said. Originally from Watford and Bedfordshire, Shaun looks like a longtime professional soldier, actually serving in the British Army for nine years, he told me.

We agreed to interview them in the trench where they lived.

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During our stay, both men, repeatedly and separately, asserted that they considered Ukraine their homeland, that they lived here permanently and had no plans to leave.

They admit that being part of the marines, an elite unit in the Ukrainian military that, like the Royal Marines, is controversial.

But they had contracts and in some cases were reminded that they were not volunteers or foreign mercenaries – they were adamant Sky News made that clear.

“I’m married to a Ukrainian, I have every right here, and guys, it took me a long time to settle in here, so guys know I’m not a war tourist or a war addict,” Shaun explained to me. .

“I work for an organized unit, I work for the government and I’m a contract soldier, so I tried to stay away from that volunteer and militia unit…”

Shaun was working in waste management in the UK when he decided he couldn’t do 16-hour days on the M25 anymore.

He said that he has a son back home in England and often visits him in Ukraine.

This is his fourth mission trip and his fourth year living here. He told us that he plans to join aid volunteer work with his wife when his contract with the military ends in December of this year.

Aidan Aslin, 28, who at the time wanted us to call him Johnny Wood in broadcasts, was on his third tour.

He told us he knew people thought he was crazy to join, but in the end his life was in Ukraine.

He owns a house here, is engaged to a Ukrainian woman and plans to start a family.

“When I first arrived, the man seemed to be a little suspicious, so why are you here? Are you crazy?” he say.

“But after a while I integrated, I learned the language, I still speak like a child when I speak Russian, but I speak enough to get the message across, so now you guys just watch me. like any other Ukrainian boy.”

Russia does not have the death penalty and besides Moscow, nowhere else on earth is the court in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic admitted to have any legitimacy.

The convictions of Shaun Pinner and Aidan Aslin are widely condemned today and the hearings were dismissed as demonstration trials.

However, that does not mean that the leaders of the Russian-backed separatist state will not carry out the sentence.

Neither they nor President Putin appear worried about the consequences of anything in recent times.